Dawn of Thunder 13: The Line
by Chaos Eternus
Summary: The Tau'ri are slowly gaining strength but in the minds of many, not fast enough and enemies both without and within have their own plans.
1. Chapter 1

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

Part of the Dawn of Thunder / Thundersdawn series  
I do not own nor do I claim ownership of characters and / or concepts that are not original to me.

**One**

There wasn't a day that went by that Peters didn't contemplate retiring and allowing the burden of her command to fall upon another. It was hard, thankfully she was no longer directly responsible for the Command of _Thundersdawn _ herself, that task now belonged to another, but that had never been her only responsibility.

She commanded Earth's defences, not just the build up and allocation of resources but actively in the event of a naval assault on the homeworld. She sat upon the Earth Defence committee, the Ship Construction and Allocation committee, a thousand and one other committees and other duties.

And she was Third in command of the Tau'ri Star Service, or as some were starting unofficially to call it, Earthforce.

In many ways, the responsibility for much of what happened to Earth lay with her. She commanded the space based defences; as such she was responsible for their failures and breeches. The commanding officer was always responsible in a way, even when there wasn't much she or he could do.

Still, their failures did ignite a response from Earth and now she had more tools with which to defend her world and had more on the way but it didn't stop the one simplest and most important dread in her heart.

What if I should fail again?

How many millions more must die simply because I was not fast enough, not decisive enough or merely wrong?

A commanding officers worries, she was sure she could mention a few figures who would more then sympathise, Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding for one.

A enemy too strong to defeat without luck on your side, too few resources and no real failback position. If the enemy managed to obtain a foothold, then only a small proportion of the population, not even a fraction of a percentage point could be taken to safety. The rest would have no choice but to fight and die or to live under a dictator's control.

No, she was pretty sure Dowding would sympathise.

Still…

If not her, who else? Who would she trust with this duty, this burden? Could she live with knowing another was doing this task, worrying that she could be doping it better, that something was being missed?

No, she couldn't.

It would be easier in many ways if she could just walk away. Certainly it would get the medics of her back, her blood pressure was fine, her heart, exactly where it belonged.

Worry-warts all of them.

Frankly, it wasn't her heart they should be worrying about, it was Thompsons! Having to deal with politicians' everyday instead of just most days, well, it didn't take a genius to figure his blood pressure was much higher then hers, mainly from having to restrain the urge to shoot the lot of 'em if she was any judge.

Still, Earth's defences were stronger then they had ever been before, more and more _Firebird _defensive platforms were being launched every month, there were three _Lancelot's _ under construction to form the backbone for the defence of _Gaia _ in Earth orbit, a lot of the older debris was being cleared from earth orbit to make it safer to work and harder to hide.

Perhaps most importantly, for the moment she had nine warships to use should an attack occur. Admittedly, half of those were recent launches and were still being shaken down, she would lose several once they were declared fully operational, but that was more friendly warships that she could remember ever being in the Sol system before and it ignored the patrol boats, the fighters and the second string combatants like the unrefitted _Ha'taks _ or the support craft.

It sounded impressive, it truly did and she knew how reassured that figure made a lot of people on earth feel.

Made her want to remind them of exactly how many _hundreds _ of Goa'uld warships had been lost at Ragnorak alone. She was sure they wouldn't feel comforted then, she sure wasn't, but that was also why she didn't remind them. There had been more then enough panic on Earth for several lifetimes, more then enough riots.

More then enough dead.

Still if she was to be honest with herself, she had to acknowledge that the dying had only just begun. It would be decades, maybe even centuries before Earth could be considered secure and even as she rose as a power, it would only mean an equally powerful threat would rise to meet her. That seemed to be as fundamental a truth as any in this universe.

That and the fact that the stars they looked up too so wonderingly in the past were now very much their blessing and their bane, their hope and their pain.

Oh, if she could write a list and send it as a wish to the stars…

Ten _Lancelot's _ already completed and operational in Earth orbit, at least a dozen warships permanently assigned to Earth defence, a powerful industrial world their enemies didn't know about willing to act as a fallback position…

While she was about it, she may as well ask for World Peace as well. Both would require far more time then their enemies were likely to allow them. Still, it may be cynical but she rather suspected the first list would be filled long before World Peace was actually achieved.

As always, she had to deal with what she had and not what she wished she had.

What she had now at least included the Command Deck, a centre designated specifically to control of the Sol system, a combined space traffic control centre and defence command, taking a lot of the load off the now cramped and overloaded bridge of the station.

That soon would be refitted into a form more suited to simply controlling that stations own functions but that would not happen until the refit of the secondary bridge was completed.

Ah, the joys of working aboard a station that _always _ had sections under refit. But then, this was a station whose role was constantly evolving and whose critical nature meant had to be kept at the peak of technology.

That reminded her, it was time to start 'discussing' upgrades for _Thundersdawn's _ missile racks with the bean-counters. She was sure the stations Captain wouldn't mind and those new missiles definitely showed promise… of course, there was also the issue of refitting the existing emplacements elsewhere to use them and ensuring an adequate supply for all their uses.

Lots of very happy defence contractors in other words.

Still, she had gathered enough wool; it was time to put her mind back where it belonged, on the job.


	2. Chapter 2

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

Two

"We've completed analysis of the debris from the recon platform Colt and Stardust stumbled over,"

Peters winced as she glanced up from her paperwork, sparing a brief moment of pity for the two pilots in question, both of whom had been caught looking in the wrong direction when a nuke went off. Neither would fly again, Colt's eyesight would never be what it was and Stardust's was simply flash-fried. He would never see again at all.

A job hazard maybe, but a nasty one, but then again, this was the reason that one of the simplest and most effective pieces of advice given to pilots about flying in the area of nuclear explosions, other then 'don't' was keep one eye closed. That way if you did lose one eye to the bright flash you at least still had the other to keep you flying.

And hey, didn't the Mythbusters cover something very similar to that once?

"It was definitely a biomechanoid."

"Cylon?" she asked sharply.

"Certainly Cylon technologies were included in its construction but the tech boys are doubtful. They're thinking Goa'uld."

"Anubis," technically, that was a name but she knew the way she spat it out made it sound far more like a curse and in many ways, it was.

"Most likely," came the reply, "but analysis is difficult, the platform was thoroughly demolished by the self-destruct. In total, we've only got about twelve kilos of debris to analyse and the sensor records from the two _Vipers. _"

"How long had the platform been out there?"

Peters didn't fail to notice the hesitation before the response, and that alone told her she wasn't going to like the answer even before the tech spoke again.

"We don't know. The gun-camera records from the _Vipers _ do indicate it had been out there long enough to be struck at least once but that could have happened within minutes of it being placed or even years."

Peters considered this for a moment. She knew the politicians would, rightly, demand answers and a solution to the discovery of a stealthed recon platform so close to Earth, but it was in the gulf between stars. It had only been stumbled across by sheer luck and the utter volume of space in the gulf made an effective search impossible. She could have patrols increased as long ranged sweeps were unlikely to pick up such a small object but they would have to be very lucky to pick up any more of the platforms and she was willing to bet there were more.

At the same time, increasing such patrols would increase the wear and tear on the precious few fighters and patrol boats she had available for such tasks, increasing maintenance costs and putting them out of position should another attack occur.

On the other hand… such platforms did have to be placed and occasionally maintained and they had to be using ships for that; ships which had to be capable of getting close to the Sol system undetected and that was a worry in itself.

It could just be _Al-kesh _ or a modified _Tel'tac _ but it could also mean _Ha'taks _ or something nastier. Either way, she didn't want their support ships or the platforms themselves in her skies.

She glanced up at the tech and nodded, "dismissed,"

For better or worse, she would need to increase fighter patrols in the gulf though she suspected it wouldn't make a difference. A few stealthy platforms of there own might be of more use and for that; she needed to speak to General Carter.

* * *

A siren screaming in your ear was not the way to be woken up.

Of course, it didn't help that he had only actually gotten to sleep a mere hour ago, figures that the boys would want to jump the gun on the scheduled drills but they could have warned him first.

It was his station after all.

Grumbling he darted out of the bed, his hands already diving for his uniform.

He would have to have words, at his age; he damned well needed his beauty sleep!

Then he froze, years of living aboard his station letting him know exactly what that rumble through the bulkheads meant. Hang on… a live fire exercise was scheduled.

_"All squadrons scramble! Scramble! Scramble! General to the bridge! Battlestations! Battlestations! No shitting!" _

'No shitting?' that's not exactly military phrasing… least not the _official _military phrasing. It wasn't as if he could honestly say he had never said exactly the same thing over the PA after all.

Still, not a drill.

D'oh!

With a grimace, O'Neill grabbed his shoes and his uniform shirt and dived out of his quarters. He would just have to dress on the way.

* * *

"It wasn't a serious attack then,"

O'Neill grimaced, nodding his agreement, "No, they didn't come in enough strength for that and they stayed well away from my station."

Thompson snorted at that, "I can hardly blame them. Breeching the defences of _Ravenbright _ would take firepower then we believe Anubis can divert at the moment, but still, that simultaneous probes in three of our systems."

"Three?"

"Edonia reports they successfully fended of an attack but _Illustrious _ got a little dinged in the process. We're rushing through a supply run with a set of spare barrels for the main guns now, we also got a hit here but they run straight into the 5th Patrolcraft squadron. Our guys were opening fire before the three _Ha'taks _ had even dropped out of hyperspace. Two of them skipped straight back out and the third took a salvo right in the breadbasket."

The General frowned, "Didn't even know the th was operational."

"They weren't, but with a confirmed kill under their belts they are now even if the squadron is still under strength."

"Good, still need more though."

Thompson snorted, "We can always do with more. The trick is managing with what you have, which reminds me, the _Eisenhower _ class is now the _Washington _class. I don't know who dropped the ball there in the naming committee but given we already have an _Eisenhower… _"

"Right, now all we need is a _Subtlety _or a _Hornet. _"

The Admiral cracked a smile at that, "one day you are going to have to tell me how you got _Subtlety _ past the committee. Still, the _Washington _ class is now a highly probable, the _Subtlety _ and the _Hornet _ are both not yet's and the _Lancer _III is being prototyped. There is also a push ongoing for a _Prometheus _ III and a _Dauntless _ III and the _Airheads _ look set for complete replacement."

O'Neill snorted, "Geeks are busy."

"So am I, trying to get funding for even half of that. You Americans seem to be focusing on the Cape with the surface construction facilities underway there for the small craft and the satellites, we're focused on _Gaia _ along with a half-dozen other nations. I'm just worried that once the current batch of construction starts to be pushed out of their slips that there wont be funding in place for the next generation."

"Ironic," O'Neill noted, "once it was Britain that stole the show by grabbing all the infrastructure, now it's us who are sinking the most money into it."

Thompson shrugged, "we succeeded in our primary goal, ensuring no one nation controlled space and the technologies we have learnt or taken from the other races. The fact that it placed us into one of the senior positions within the hierarchy was a major bonus that helped sell it to the brass. Frankly, whilst we gained a poll position for a while, we always knew we were never going to keep it. When America turns her mind to do something, the resources, money and energy that can be brought to bear still put almost every other single nation to shame."

"There are those in your government who would do well to remember that,"

Thompson's eyes narrowed, "and equally, there are those in yours who would do equally well to remember that 'ally' doesn't equate to 'slave' or that American doesn't have a divine right to control space."

O'Neill grimaced but didn't argue the point, "the nationalist ticket is pretty strong at the moment,"

"That's reactionary and you know it," he shrugged, "still, they are a minority, albeit a visible and quite troublesome one but it doesn't help us with our primary concern; These raids."

The General frowned then shook his head, "I'm not convinced they're mere raids."

Thompson raised a speculative eyebrow, "go on."

He tried not to look uncomfortable but failed, "my gut says they're a prelude, simple information gathering."

"The Free Jaffa and Tok'ra spy rings have not reported a major movement of ships towards our positions or even a marshalling of supplies in readiness."

"I know," O'Neill shook his head unhappily, "but Anubis is arrogant but not always stupid. If he thought we were watching out for a concerted movement…"

"He wouldn't make one, he would simply slip one or two ships out of everyone of his fleets and order them to a rendezvous or maybe ever several," Thompson shrugged, "we put every movement report we receive into the computers and there are both programs and people monitoring for that kind of pattern amongst others."

"I know."

"But you're still worried," it wasn't a question. The Admiral whistled, shaking his head slowly as he considered the implications, "if it were anyone else… but you still have more direct experience with Anubis then anyone else we have."

The General shrugged, still uncomfortable but unwilling to ignore his gut, it had saved his life too many times.

"Alright," Thompson noted after a few moments, "what do we do about it?"

"Peters has already ordered patrols in the area stepped up," O'Neill noted, "Those worlds in the area with gates are already checked on a regular basis. This may be one for intelligence."

Thompson snorted with the typical mild contempt of a military officer for the Intelligence services, "well, I will have a word but without something firm…"

"What about the cutting-out crews?"

"The last three attempts have been failures, ambushes," the Admiral shrugged, "I believe Davis has ordered the attempts abandoned for the moment."

"A few more _Ha'taks _ wouldn't hurt,"

"I know but all they managed to grab was _Tel'tacs _ and _Al-kesh. _ Useful but not _Ha'taks. _"

"Perhaps," the General replied with a glint in his eyes, "they just need to be a bit more inventive…"

"You have an idea?"

O'Neill nodded and Thompson smiled, "perhaps we should get Davis in on this…"


	3. Chapter 3

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Three**

Davis was having a bad day, it started with being told the refit to Cheyenne Mountain had been delayed by the discovery of yet another geological fault that had either been missed during the original construction or had grown from insignificant to large enough to be a problem during the years of usage. Frankly, either was possible, especially with the oddness Stargate Command had caused on occasions, from major rumblings from the gate itself before they figured out how to dampen that properly to massive explosions in the lower levels.

When they figured out that naquadah and potassium was a dangerous mix was a good example of the later. In either case, it meant another massive concrete cap to protect the base from rock falls meaning more time and more expense.

Then they had found a body underneath what used to be the main space command complex in an area that was supposed to be inspected yearly, but not only had the body been missed for at least twenty-one years but there was still a knife between the ribs.

It was a Marine which meant he had to deal with the competent but highly irritating Special Agent Gibbs again. He'd thought the son of a bitch had retired but apparently he had been recalled, along with so many others at disclosure.

In a move which he thought would nicely top off his day, sarcasm intended, he had then been informed of a surprise inspection by oversight and could he possibly send a welcoming party to the main gate…

And now he had General O'Neill letting him know about another of his bright ideas.

Just… perfect.

"Of course I know we need more ships and the benefits of taking them from the enemy haven't exactly escaped me either! The question is how," The Major General shook his head wearily, "it's not like the old days when maybe eight to twelve people could waltz through the gate, massacre some Jaffa and just take what they wanted! Anubis doesn't even bother with constructing warships on planetary surfaces anymore, everything larger then an _Al-kesh _ is done purely in orbit and as for Maktenos, well, he still builds on the surface but he takes security seriously and his training… frankly, his troops are better then certain 'western' militaries I could mention."

"The Razors…"

"Are being massacred, they were a nice surprise for the Goa'uld but Anubis and Maktenos have both adapted, we're working on a tank designed from the ground up to fit through the gate, not just a refit but its going to take time. The Razors are just too close to the maximum size for the gate that they can't just be driven through at speed and that's what's getting them killed."

Of course, O'Neill didn't need to have that spelt out for him. Taking the gate on a defended world was now getting to be a dicey and often expensive proposition. Frankly, it sucked and that applied double for whichever unfortunate soldiers got 'volunteered' to lead the charge.

General speaking, the lead wave of troops didn't come back anymore.

O'Neill didn't need that spelt out for him either.

" _Tel'tacs _ and _Paladins _?"

He had to nod reluctantly, "we've had some success either just using small ships to land a raiding party or as one prong in a two pronged attack on the gate but if the craft gets spotted… lost teams five teams last week. _Ha'tak _ spotted two _Paladins _ doing a low level approach on the gate and blew them away from orbit, by that time we'd already received the signal from the _Paladins _ that they were moving into position so the ground assault through the gate then went ahead as planned…"

"Ouch,"

"The main issue as well is that Anubis has proven willing to destroy a gate from orbit if we gain control of it form the ground. Not only is he willing to destroy gates but on a few occasions he has actually beamed the gate away from us."

Davis sighed as he watched O'Neill shake his head dispirited, "Maktenos… well, on at least one world he has actually rigged the gate up so that when it's not in use it's actually suspended over a lake of molten lava. That I think says it all."

"Maktenos is not the primary concern for the moment, Anubis is."

"I know, but I don't see how we can reasonably take ships from them anymore. The surviving Goa'ulds and the various groups of rogues are actually easier… when you can find them and that's the difficult part."

"What about a minor Goa'uld who was planning to align himself with Anubis to save his own skin?"

"I don't see how you could persuade Bes to assist us and we are in no position to block the move. Frankly, he's so minor I'm surprised you've been made aware of the intelligence."

"Oh, we don't persuade him at all. Perhaps you should read the report again and read exactly where the handover is supposed to occur?"

Davis found a small sliver of hope stirring, "you do have a plan... for once."

Maybe, just maybe this wasn't going to be such a bad day after all.

* * *

"I'm not sure I entirely approve of this," Hirsch noted as he followed Peters through the corridors of the station, "it's bad enough that Enerina was trusted enough that she was given a destroyer by you and frankly, we could spare that even less then then we could now, but now you're talking about giving, and we aren't just talking about being able to look over operational examples, we're talking about training, scientific principles the works, giving classified technologies to a System Lord!"

"Enerina is no system lord, not in the old sense anyway."

"And how can you be so sure, you can not see into her heart and truly know what she is. Given how many Goa'ulds that had been killed off since the Stargate was reopened, it would be in many ways a logical choice to gain our trust, to learn all she could of our technologies, our procedures and our tactics to increase not only her own chances of survival but to increase her power over the other Goa'ulds."

"Maybe, maybe now," Peters shrugged, "but I've worked with her on a regular basis and in my judgement she is someone that we can at the very least work with and frankly, someone I would call a friend."

"And that tells me all I need to know about your judgement in friends."

"Yes Admiral it does, after all, I approved you for the German Liaison position didn't I?"

"Given the alternatives…"

"Listen, I know you don't trust Enerina, I know you don't trust the Jaffa , the Asgard, in fact pretty much anyone who isn't an Earth-born human and frankly I'm sick of it. We need allies if we are to survive…"

"Need yes, we should use them for a much military and technological support as possible, better a thousand Goa'uld, mature or not, should die then a single human, better the Asgard should ablate the replicator assault whilst we gather the strength to deal with them then we should assist the Asgard and help them maintain their strength!"

"Flottillenadmiral Hirsh!" Peters barked, annoyed and dismayed, "You are out of line, in case it had escaped your notice, we can not stand alone, we need our allies if we are to get anywhere in this war and for you to just dismiss them as tools to be used and then discarded as you see fit.. Words almost fail me. Frankly, you're beginning to sound like Kinsey!"

"I am not the one who is out of line here Admiral," Hirsh noted darkly, "frankly, I pretended long enough for the sake of politics and being nice to our so-called allies but you've given technologies to the Jaffa and we know how badly they leak information to Anubis and Maktenos, but now you plan on given the same technologies to a Goa'uld System Lord?

How you escaped treason charges when you gave _Defiant _ to her I don't know but to authorise the refitting of her _Ha'taks _ as well? You plan on providing an enemy with better weapons, shields and systems?

No, it is not I who go to far Peters, it is you and I intend to see you hang for it."

Peters glared as Hirsh's back at the Admiral strode swiftly away.


	4. Chapter 4

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Four**

_"New business as the Airbus facilities in Broughton gains a new contract, the breakdown of Goa'uld _ Udajeet _ class fighters for parts and materials for use in construction of new F-302 class starfighters. _

_The facilities, which have lain empty since Disclosure used to employ over five thousand people and its hoped this new contract, expected to last as many as five years given the sheer volume of _Udajeet's _ in storage will help in the rebuilding of the local economy." _

_"The first batch of the Mk. 1 ' _Trident' _satellites arrived back on Earth at the Cape today as fifteen of _Thundersdawn _stations aging emplacements are swapped for newly built Mk. 2b _'Firebirds'.

_The new mark of the satellite, which is designed primarily for defence against fighters and smaller warships, mounts uprated pulse lasers, improved electronics and the new _'Cobra' _missile. _

_The Tau'ri Star Service has confirmed they intend to remove all Mk. 1 satellites from service over the coming months but no word yet as to whether all the _Firebirds _ currently in use would be upgraded to the new standard." _

_"Holidays on Alpha Prime and Freedom? _

_In a bold move, a coalition of holiday companies from five separate nations has begun negotiations with Lord Holmes, the British born governor of Alpha Prime and the Colonial government with regards to the forming of holiday camps on both worlds. _

_It is believed the cash strapped Colonial Government are already planning to agree but that Lord Holmes maybe more difficult to persuade. _

_Such plans however cannot come to fruition until an more robust transport system is in place between our Sol system and Alpha Centauri and no less then four different groups are now known to be working towards the construction of civilian liners and freighters for that purpose." _

_"The patrol squadron based at Darwin , the first line of defence for the Southern Hemisphere is now at full strength today with the arrival of its sixth and final craft. The new ship, of the _Blastboat _ type launched from _Ravenbright _ yesterday and was escorted to Earth by the destroyer _Invincible; _it is expected to be running shakedown exercises for the next two months. _

_This new arrival has been lauded as a step in the right direction but many insist more needs to be done to redress the balance of defences, in both ships and stations between the northern and southern hemispheres. _

_Currently, no Starfighter squadrons are based south of the Equator nor are there any fixed emplacements." _

_"A _Blastboat _ type patrol boat, the _Keeper II _ has left the system under a veil of secrecy today, bound for a secret military base, known only by its call sign, the Alpha Site. This facility is believed to be one of several fallback facilities in existence should the Earth and Alpha Centauri systems ever fall into enemy control, it is also the only one who existence has been publically confirmed." _

_"Six ships left on the first deployment of the 1 st Battlegroup, three remain in refit after that disastrous, barely successful ride into hell, but perhaps not for long. _Overseer, _which lost its main weapons during the mission and _Britannica _ which lost several weapons and her sublight drives are both rumoured to be within days of relaunching from their drydocks at _Ravenbright _ and _Thundersdawn.

Britannica _remains the most powerful purely Earth built ship to date and as yet, is the only one of her class completed. A further _Britannica, _the _United Kingdom _is under construction at _Edonia Station _and a third, likely to be the first to mount two Ion cannons, the _Constitution _has already been funded, this time by the US Government. _

_The construction of the _Constitution _ is only waiting on slip 9 at _Thundersdawn _ to become free and is likely to be considerably quicker then the construction of her predecessors as many of her major components including her hyperdrive have already been completed and placed into storage. _

Persephone _ which had to be towed home after suffering a complete and near-catastrophic failure of her hyperdrives is known to still be unsealed and it is likely to be several more months before she is ready to launch." _

_"A statement from the Tau'ri Star Service today confirmed the launch of the first _Eagle-eye _craft, these new vessels, based on the _Paladin _ and pushed through to prototype stage despite objections from numerous politicians are to be the space based equivalent to the more Earthbound Sentry and Hawkeye AWACs aircraft. _

_If the design is proven and is successful enough to enter general service, estimates suggest as many as fifty of these craft may be part of an initial order alone, split between the TSS and the Colonial militaries. _

_No information has been released yet regarding their capabilities." _

_"Civilian spaceflight takes a step forward as the Colonial Government and the Spaceways Consortium have signed an agreement to jointly fund the upgrading and redesign not just of a liner based on the Colonial One design, but of a cargo craft design originally created by the Colonial Movers company prior to the fall of the Colonies. _

_This agreement will give the budding Spaceways consortium a major lead over both the Spaceliner Consortium backed by Boeing and the Chinese governments own liner project as well a reducing costs for the Colonials own growth into the Civilian market." _

_"Radiation alerts across the United Kingdom and much of Europe today as a major storm with winds gusting up to ninety miles per hour crosses the Exeter Exclusion Zone. This zone, created by the use of a 'dirty' bomb by the Cylons was slowly being reduced in size by the actions of a small squadron of refitted Asgard _Beliskner _ class ships but it is unknown at the moment exactly how the high winds are going to effect the distribution of radiation. _

_It is, unfortunately, expected to greatly increase the area covered despite the actions of the Asgard who have taken their ships just above the storm and are currently attempting to effectively 'strain' the radioactive particles from the storm system." _


	5. Chapter 5

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Five**

"One of these days," Higgs commented with a groan, "HQ is going to outsmart themselves with these tricky plans. I mean, for God's sakes, how many things have to go together just right for this too work?"

"Too many Private," came the swift reply, the Marine glaring at the departing _Paladin _ as it departed the area with what could be described as indecent haste. Not that it was really any skin off his nose, so long as it didn't get spotted.

Least, not yet anyhow.

"Domino, Thompson lead out," he barked out, turning away form the craft with a shake of his head, "Piers, Shoketa take the six, Higgs you're with me."

"I mean, fuck…"

"Higgs, you're a good Marine," he noted kindly but quietly, his eyes darting around the clearing as they swiftly ran towards the tree line, "or you would be, if you just wouldn't moan so much."

"Been working with the Brits too much," came the moaned reply and it was with great difficultly that he kept himself from rolling his eyes at his partner, "they moan so much… the brass say they don't need to worry about their squaddies till they actually stop bitching."

This he considered and after a few moments had to concede the point. Bunch of whiners the lot of 'em but they could hold themselves in a fight. Of course, they weren't as good as American Marines…

Except their SBS of course, not as well trained or equipped as Recon but damn, did those bastards make up for it in what they called 'sheer bloody-mindedness' and what he called being evil minded and damn devious fuckers. Not enough of 'em to fill a piss-bucket but if you had to have a limey watching your back…

"You aren't a limey so quit it," he barked out after a few moments, "This is going to hard enough as it without the whining."

_"…under attack, repeat…" _

With a groan, he tapped at his earpiece then shook his head, "please tell me I was hearing things just then."

"If you were hearing our ride bitching because the flight attendant had spilled the last pot of tea, then yes, you were hearing things."

Laughing inwardly, he shot Higgs a repressing glare even as he tried to raise the _Paladin. _

Rather unsuccessfully as it turned out, and they hadn't even been planetside five minutes! A buried gate, a _Paladin _ that had gone off the air and a damned Goa'uld garrison that, if they had any sense, would now been searching for any humans who may have been dropped off by the transport.

Oh boy was Murphy a _bastard. _

"All right, let's double-time it people, we've got a job to…

_"Udajeet! Coming in on our six!" _

Of course there was… and them without any anti-air ordinance on account of a shortage, beautiful. Only thing they could try and do was to take this run and whilst the bastard was circling around for another go, ghost out of the area.

An hour, that's how long it was supposed to take before they were detected, an hour! Not a mere five minutes…

With a grimace, he quickly passed his instructions to the rest of the squad, then hunkered down, making a mental bet on exactly how close the nearest blast from the staff cannons mounted on the fighter would actually get. Ten feet he mused, no closer I bet.

The _Udajeet _ fired and for a dangerous moment he froze, only to find himself on his back ten seconds later with an imprint of Higg's boot in his side and a small crater were he had been laying mere seconds earlier.

"The fuck?" He heard a curse come from Piers, "that wasn't a staff cannon."

He gazed across, wincing inwardly as a tree a few meters away collapsed, crashing to the ground, its trunk blown straight through just ten feet from its base. An almost straight and dangerously familiar line of debris, destruction and torn Leading form the tree line to… he glanced swiftly behind him, twelve feet beyond where he had laid.

The last time he had seen anything remotely resembling that kind of damage it involved a pissed off A-10 _Warthog _ not a Goa'uld fighter!

"Was that…"

"Yes," he nodded grimly at Higgs, "that was a Pulse Laser."

"What the fuck is a fucking Goa'uld fucking System Lord doing with fighters equipped with fucking pulse lasers!"

"That would be the question," he noted, rising to his feet, "least we know now what Bes had planned to buy his way into Anubis's good graces with."

The clattering of gunfire sounded and he turned swiftly over, gun raised as eyes widening as he caught sight of a Jaffa with a strange weapon that required some form of backpack… likely a power supply he noted mentally even as he began stroking the trigger of his P-90.

The Jaffa turned towards Domino and he barked out a warning.

Then his eyes widened and a sliver of fear escaped for just a moment as the Hispanic Marine vanished in the characteristic thump of a grenade detonation. Except no-one had thrown any grenades; his grenades had been cooked off as he was wearing them.

Another Jaffa appeared, then a dozen more strode into sight and he glanced around, seeing even more Jaffa walking in on their flanks. Most were equipped with traditional staffs but a small few also had the man-portable Pulse Lasers, something that was not yet in the Tau'ri arsenal.

"Fuck," he noted then grimacing gestured towards the remains of his squads to lower their weapons even as he threw his away.

"Yeah," came the dark whisper from Higgs at his side, "we know what Higgs plans to buy his way into Anubis's good graces with… us!"

* * *

"You know Anubis is going to react,"

O'Neill snorted, "Frankly, I think he's already planning on paying us a visit. Too many probes, not enough assaults."

"That may be true," Peters replied, "bluntly I'm just glad we've got _Britannica _ and _Overseer _ back in the game. We'll need the extra muscle when the retaliation comes."

"Are the 1st ready?"

"Not yet," she admitted, "I'm shuffling a bit to bulk them up, think I can cut loose another destroyer and a _Ha'tak _ but they're both going to be awfully green."

"I'm sure the mini-me won't mind,"

"Nor will Rear-Admiral Gregori,"

O'Neill looked puzzled at this and Peters shrugged, "it was decided that Captain O'Neill was not senior and experienced enough to maintain control over the Battlegroup for an operation as major as this."

"And how much experience does this Gregori have?"

"On water… lots. In space, none." Came the dry reply.

"Great," O'Neill moaned, "don't you have somebody with a little more experience available?"

"The numbers of officers we have with experience of commanding multi-ship engagements in space can be counted without taking your shoes off," Peters noted, "the most experienced is Adama and he's not willing to go too far from the colony, not that I can blame him."

An alert warbled on her desk and she glanced down and grimaced, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this short. NavInt are screaming at me for some reason."

O'Neill nodded, "luck," and terminated the call.

* * *

"Trouble," Higgs moaned as he watched the gaudy shoes step into view from his prone position on the hard floor.

"This is an unexpected bonus," Bes noted, smirking maliciously at the soldiers bound at his feet, "my master will be pleased."

Higgs snorted, "Assuming he accepts your service, got a good suck-up routine on standby?"

The Goa'uld gestured and seconds later the Soldier was spitting out two of his teeth and a lot of blood, courtesy of the blunt end of a staff weapon.

"Foolish Tau'ri, Anubis accepted my service years ago and set me to obtaining samples of Earth technologies and seeing if any were fit to be put to his glorious use," he sighed theatrically, "alas, so much of it was just useless junk… but these Pulse Lasers of yours, well, I'm sure Anubis will see there uses as much as I have. Of course, you have given him so many examples of their usage, that I am sure will help magnificently."

With one last smirk, he swept from the room and the team found themselves alone with the Jaffa once more, one of whom nodded, just slightly when his eye was caught.

* * *

"The difficulty is not in finding like minded people, it is in finding people who are willing to _admit _they are like minded. Gathering them together, moving them into place as a Master would with his chess board, avoiding the suspicious gaze of the authorities until we are ready.

And of course, the tools we use, they will have their own motives. Some will follow because they trust us, others because they are thinking of their careers, the power we would weald. A few would simply have beefs with the current powers and would simply like redress for whatever slights, real or imagined, they believe have occurred and would follow for that opportunity.

There will be those who follow simply to line their own pockets, and as long as we are in the ascendant their loyalty can be considered firmly bought.

And of course, there will be some thugs who would follow simply for the potential to be bullies. They have their uses of course, but they would need to be watched and maybe even done away with once they have served their purpose.

There is danger here, in the path you seek. There will be those who will try and stop us and some will prove quite tenacious and able, they always do."

"Then they will have to be dealt with,"

"Quite. This will not be cheap of course."

"The advantage of everything being so classified and compartmentalised is that it is easy to divert a few funds form here and there… they have no auditors who are cleared to see everyone's books and that had been working to our advantage. I have control of sufficient seed funds to get this started and once we are in control, it will not matter so much."

"No, it will not I suppose. What of the allies?"

"We will present a friendly façade to them for as long as we have use for them. After that, they will be of little consequence one way or the other."

"What of the…"

"We will have to put plans in place, what we could learn from their ships is incalculable… and to think the fools don't seem to take the concept of taking their ships when they have four so vulnerable to us at hand!"

"Four obsolescent ships."

"By their standards perhaps but not by ours. Still, they will serve us well once we have our dues."

"That will be tricky."

"No worthwhile task is ever easy, but think of it! At last we will have a unified world, complete under one banner!"

"I seem to remember a countryman of yours who once conceived of the same and was undone."

"He did not have satellites, nuclear weapons and spaceships! No enemy can rally on the ground without notice from space, no army can gather, no fleet assemble, not with us controlling the skies and we will control the skies."

"Maybe, but we shall see, after all, nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Indeed not, still I have already transferred some funds into the usual account. It should be enough to get you started."

"Very well Admiral."


	6. Chapter 6

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Six**

"At least give me some Good news," Peters barked, leaning backwards from her chair in disgust as one of the Williams twins walked into the room. It took her a few seconds to spot that the gold tooth was on the lower right making this Sarah, the Commodores rank tabs were also a give-away. Finally one twin had started to leave the other behind.

"I've released the last of the _Lancers _ and _F-302's _ from the basic training squadrons," she shrugged, a slight grin twitching in the corner of her mouth, "we've shuffled a few about to bring the OTU's for both types to full strength but a good few will be available operational after maintenance gives them the once over."

Peters shook her head, leaning forwards and tapping at her keyboard swiftly, "okay you win that one. What kind of numbers are we looking at?"

"Joan is doing the work up on that but we're talking enough to bring the existing squadrons to full strength and with new construction, kick off the 8th SFW."

"Okay, well I've certainly got a use for a new squadron…"

"So have the Australians," Sarah noted dryly, "they'll be based in Darwin once they're operational. Boss is still getting a lot of pressure over the lack of assets south of the Equator and he's not disagreeing."

This was considered for a moment then she leaned away from her desk once more with shrug, "not much I can say to that really. Still, it's a start… how are the _Darts _ working out?"

"Well enough for our needs," Sarah gesturing towards the small kitchen just off Peter's office and smiling as her friend gestured at her own cup gratefully. Grabbing the empty, she strode into the room, followed by Peters who leaned against the doorway as she studied the younger officer.

"Certainly they're proving to be more reliable then the _Lancers _ and a damn sight quicker and cheaper to maintain then both previous types but it has increased our use of _Paladins _ when it comes to hyperspace training."

"I heard you had put in a request for a second squadron,"

"We have 10 operational squadrons of _Paladins, _most of which have twenty birds plus a large number of individual craft assigned either to individuals or ships which aren't part of any squadron and just one unit to train all _Paladin _ variants and give the basic training in Hyperspace for… well, anyone going to a ship or squadron that's hyperspace capable. The phrase 'overwhelmed' just doesn't begin to cover it.

I'm just glad it is a dedicated squadron now, this time last year it was a composite dealing with operational conversion for _Shunters _ and _Airheads _ as well!"

Peters shook her head, smiling gratefully as she took the tea, paint-peeling strong of course, "I've have seen a few complaints regarding the quality of new trainees arriving in squadron after going through the OTUs… that has dropped off for the other craft but _Paladins _ are still an issue."

"And they are the largest single class in commission," Sarah grimaced as she took a sip of her own drink, using the kitchen top for a chair, "it is one of the main reasons I came today… I want two more squadrons of _Paladins _ assigned to my dept."

That got Sarah a direct look and the Admiral actually paused in drinking for a moment, "Why?"

"What I think we need at the moment is one squadron specifically for hyperspace training, teaching the controls common to the small craft that are hyperspace capable and the separate control sets used upon the larger craft for those getting their Ships Pilots ratings.

Another squadron to train the most common _Paladin _ variants, the cargo, passenger and courier versions and a third squadron as the composite to train the less common variations such as the gunboats, the SAR boats and the like. That one is more likely to be an administrative squadron then actual as the training needs are so different between the types not to mention the locations but still.

If the Eagle-eyes are proven, I'm likely to ask for a squadron just for them as well."

Peters winced but she knew Sarah wouldn't ask unless she really thought it was necessary, plus she knew something she rather suspected the Commodore didn't yet.

"Got out of a meeting with Oversight two hours ago,"

"Hence the greeting…"

Acknowledging the dry but accurate hit with a nod, she continued, "the orders have been placed for the support craft for _Gaia _."

"Oh hell…"

"Unfortunately it all revolves around the lack of a major ETOS capability and frankly we're not sure if the _Ha'tak _ refits will be ready before the station starts to go online… we're talking two _Airhead _ squadrons with a redeployment of one once the ETOS capability is improved, two _Paladin _ squadrons and two _Shunter _ squadrons."

"Oh _hell _ no," Sarah winced, "that kind of batch increase in numbers really does nasty things to training schedules… I think we can handle it for the _Shunters _ and _Airheads _ but the _Paladins _ will be the issue. I will definitely need more _Paladins _ in Training Command, simple as."

This was considered for a moment and then she grimaced, "not to mention, space to put 'em all."

"That's something Oversight is already working on. Looking likely that a lot of _Gaia's _ support structure will end up at the Cape ."

" Lot of eggs going into that one basket… they just picked up two of my new squadrons as it is, one of _Darts _ and another of _Airheads. _"

"I know Sarah and I agree… but the Cape was a fundamental part of the space effort for decades even before the gate was opened. They've got more then just inertia going for them, they've got those years of investment, knowledge…"

"I know," Sarah sighed, "and to a point I agree… but we're talking about the single largest concentration of surface based facilities and squadrons we have. In my mind, that's a problem, no, more then a problem, that's a Category One _target. _ It's bad enough they placed our main satellite construction facility there and that all the other facilities got mothballed, bad enough the main assembly line for pretty much everything small craft wise form those crappy SGC shuttles through to _Striker _ fighters ended up there… but we're also deploying a lot of other infrastructure and support assets there as well.

That place needs a fighter squadron or something nastier pretty much now."

"I agree… but fighter construction is way behind at the moment and may well stay that way with eight new support squadrons confirmed plus what you're asking for… hell, the Colonials haven't placed an order yet, they're waiting to see what the _Eagle-eyes _ test like but that's a potential order for two short squadrons right there between home defence and _Galactica. _"

"Okay," came the dry reply, "whose pushing for another assembly line…"

" China," Peters promptly replied, " Italy and Russia … all three want one in their borders. About a dozen others just want one built and operational, not so bothered about where. Not much in the way of funding offered yet though."

"Of course…" she shook her head, "but my point stands and the news about _Gaia _ just makes it more urgent. I don't have the number of _Paladins _ I need to support the training for our current strength. The level of increase you're talking about…"

"I know," the now empty cup was placed down on the table and Peters sank down into one of the uncomfortable metal chairs in the room as Sarah raided the cupboards looking for something remotely edible.

"Where are…"

"There are some crisps in the cupboard with the blue handle, anything else you'll need to use the phone for."

"Coloured coded cupboards now?" Sarah noted laughing as she practically dived in.

"Why not?" the Admiral rolled her eyes, "everything else on this base seems to be…"

"I know what that's like," she smiled, "but I think _Ravenbight _ is the worst for it."

" _Gaia _ is likely to be worse still," Peters rolled her eyes expressively, "I mean they've got to label services, the purpose of a specific section of the station, safety systems, hazards and denote more then just common routes from point to point but who the route is for. I mean, there will be foot traffic; cargo carriers, some of the internal corridors are being set up for outsized loads not to mention the trams. I mean… not even _Ravenbright _ has trams!"

"I don't think the Goa'uld would have considered those in the original design,"

"You may be right… but frankly, given the size of the station and the estimated levels of internal movement for passengers and cargo, the design team considered that a small network was necessary."

"I'm surprised no-one has suggested one for this old lady."

Peters shook her head smiling, "it has been suggested but it won't work for most of the station. All we could do would be an end to end line, from slip 8 at the port extreme to bay 7 at the starboard end of the station."

"Even that may help movement,"

"True," she shrugged, "it may even happen in a future refit. There has already been a suggestion that once _Gaia _ goes online the innermost slips, 1 and 2 should be decommissioned and the main body of the station expanded outwards to encompass the bays, giving more room for basic station functions and helping to spread the load on the main spar out to those points."

"Still getting loading issues?"

"Very much so," she shook her head at Sarah, "parts of that section still predate our getting access to trinium. We're talking a lot of steel being put under higher stresses then it was ever designed for, a lot of the secondary supports have been replaced and they are helping to take the load off the mains but the mains themselves still can't be replaced. The station doesn't have the integrity to hold itself together long enough for the spars to be swapped out."

"Sounds like a recipe for some real fun,"

"You have no idea," Peters shook her head, "but equally there are those pushing for this station to be decommissioned."

Sarah paused at this then shook her head, "I'm assuming we aren't talking about the sour grapes brigade this time."

"No, this station has exceeded its original design specs greatly and it is causing problems. The environmental system, structural integrity, hell for that matter we have a number of departments like shipbuilding for instance that are understaffed but we have quarters originally designed for one person being used a dormitories for a half-dozen. If we weren't so essential this station would be shut down for safety violations, once _Gaia _ goes online and our construction ability is no longer so important, well…

Either we get refitted or replaced. I don't see _Thundersdawn _being allowed to continue as she is and within a decade, I doubt that she will be the main emplacement in the system."

"Great," the reply came after a few moments, "and is not as if you've never been refitted either."

"No," Peters admitted, "we've been under constant sectional refits since construction started pretty much but we're heading towards the situation where we ever get a complete shut-down refit or we get replaced. I couldn't really say right now which way it will end up going."

"Well, I would be inclined to watch the deployment of the _Lancelots. _"

Sarah caught the puzzled look from her superior and inclined her head thoughtfully, "that can be redeployed but its not easy. Now I know _Thundersdawn _ is in the running to get the platform and I've spoken to Lieutenant Colonel Billingsgate who is on the emplacement deployment board and he did say that the condition of this station was one of the factors being considered regarding where they deploy the _Lancelots. _"

"Go on…" Peters noted, gazing at Sarah intently.

"I'm guessing but if no _Lancelots _ are deployed here, don't expect much in the way of future investment. One is a neutral response… two or more would be a pretty heavy additional defence for a station that can normally hold its own in a fight…"

"Unless," realization dawned in the Admirals eyes, "they're planning on the stations ability to defend itself being severely compromised for a time."

"Exactly," came the swift reply.

"I think," Peters stated rising from her seat, "I need to speak to the good Colonel."

"Cool," Sarah noted, pushing herself off the countertop.

"I will also mention the _Paladins _to him at the same time," she noted, accepting the grateful look from the twin, "It's not strictly his domain but it does affect the quality of the pilots he gets for his fighters so…"

"Thank you," came the reply as Sarah strode out, leaving Peters to her calls.


	7. Chapter 7

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Seven**

_"The 1 st Battlegroup, reinforced to a massive fourteen ships was reported to have left the Sol System today. Sources have declined to comment regarding why the most powerful taskforce ever created by our military has departed except to say that this is a part of an ongoing operation. _

_So far the Battlegroup has only had two major deployments and in both cases, severe losses were suffered. Here is to hoping third time will be the charm." _

_"Scattered fighting erupted around El Toro yet again today as an attempt to seize warships of the smaller _Blastboat _ and _Gunner _ types was thwarted by the security services. No word on casualties yet though it is rumoured that the crew of at least one of the craft may have been killed as they raced to their craft to take it from the danger zone. _

_This is the tenth attack on TSS facilities within the last month and the third on United States soil." _

_"Quiet satisfaction down under today as the Tau'ri Star Service confirms its intention to form another fighter squadron, the 8 th Starfighter wing and deploy it to the Royal Australian Airforce base at Darwin . This squadron, which will be formed using _F-302 _ starfighters replaced in training command by _Darts, _will be the first fighter squadron to be based south of the Equator." _

_"A larger space military is on the cards today as two new nations, Belgium and Luxembourg officially join the Tau'ri Star Service bringing the total number of nations up to fourteen. _

_It is hoped more nations will join and negotiations continue will several, Ireland and Finland for example but progress continues to be slow and a number of nations are now actively resisting efforts to expand the support for the military." _

_"A massive explosion in the skies above France has damaged or destroyed electronics across much of the continent. The explosion is rumoured to have occurred aboard a _Paladin _ transporting the new German Chancellor Gerste to the destroyer _Potemkin _ for his meeting with the Colonial Government in Exile. _

_The Chancellor had only officially taken up the reins one month earlier." _

_"Oil from the destroyed Proteus IV oil platform has began to reach the English coast today causing severe damage to local habitats and wildlife. The oil platform, destroyed by extremists a week ago, was one of the newest in the North Sea Oilfields and used both traditional and off-world derived technologies in the extraction process. _

_Its destruction trigged a major clean-up operation which has been hampered by the discovery of a previously unknown minefield in the region which has already claimed an RNLI lifeboat attempting to recover survivors from the platform. It is believed these mines were deliberately placed by the same group which destroyed Proteus IV. _

_As yet, no statement has been released as to the progress on the investigation." _

_"Two weeks ago the Spaceways Consortium announced a competition to name its first ship and in doing so, has now raised a staggering one billion Euros in funding, reported to be one hundred times its own initial estimates. _

_Entries to that competition remain open and with VIP treatment on the maiden voyage at stake, remains as popular as ever worldwide. _

_Now the game has changed, emboldened by its popularity, the competition has now been extended to the first five ships with existing entries being randomly split between the ships and that half the money raised will now go to charitable causes." _

_"Arrests continue in Colorado today as the Command Gang as they have become known are chased down. Using the cover of the reconstruction of the Stargate Command facilities at Cheyenne Mountain , this group, all military personnel, engaged in a string of brutal robberies and worse. _

_Their access to Zat guns made tracking these thieves difficult as they destroyed all the evidence they would behind them. It was also their undoing as when Federal Agents eventually realized that they were dealing with advanced technologies, they had only one source in the area to investigate." _

_"In the wake of last weeks announcements by Belgium and Luxembourg, Finland too has confirmed its intention to join the Tau'ri Star Service and is rumoured to be preparing to fund at least one destroyer of the as-yet not prototyped _Washington _ class." _

_"An assassination attempt upon Major General Paul Davis of the Tau'ri Star Service was thwarted today when guards realised the same officer had apparently signed into Stargate Command facilities, currently being reconstructed in Colorado Springs , twice. _

_The assassin had already reached the General when his he was discovered and sources say it was the General himself who shot the intruder." _

_"The British Army is out on the streets again today as startling images taken of a raid upon a London Reconstruction base confirm that the raiders who have been pillaging the cities remains and have killed at least two-hundred workers were not human as originally thought but are in fact Jaffa Warriors. _

_The Warriors, most likely a remnant of the group which destroyed much of London during the events of Disclosure, have successfully managed to avoid detection for almost two years now, a fact which will not make the British Public very happy." _

_"There are calls for an investigation today as a cruise liner burns off the Swedish coast, destroyed almost in an instant when an _Airhead _ transport of the Tau'ri Star Service lost its load, dropping a four tonne canister of propylene. _

_This canister burst upon impacting the deck of the liner and promptly ignited, it is believed the canister had already been compromised by a partial re-entry. _

_Propylene gas which is used in the shipyards for welding and cutting, is classed as a hazardous material and its transport occurs strictly over water, a move intended to reduce the chances of civilian casualties should the load be dropped. _

_No word has yet been received as to casualties but they are believed to be high." _

_"A coup for 2K games today as they confirm they have secured the rights to produce a game centred around Stargate Command's very first mission through the gate to Abydos with rumoured options on at least twelve more missions. _

_The game, widely expected to be a first person shooter, is just the latest in a long line of fundraising efforts endorsed by the Tau'ri Star Service, a feature movie based on the same mission is already in post-production." _

_"Plans are underfoot to reopen the Alpha Mine on Alpha Prime. The mine, the first on the world for bauxite, an aluminium ore was heavily damaged prior to the events of Disclosure by mine collapses and the unexpected discovery of an old Goa'uld bio-weapons plant. _

_General O'Neill also ordered the facility nuked when it was believed the bio-weapons facility had been compromised, this latter proved not to be the case as the symptoms experienced by the investigative team were later traced to other sources. _

_It is thought the roof of the cavern will need to be removed before access to the aluminium ore and the less valuable coal can be safely achieved, this will turn the facility into the largest opencast mine known, though it has not yet been stated how the cavern roof would actually be removed." _

_"The 3rd wave of colonisation for Alpha Prime has been officially delayed today. The announcement today comes as no surprise to many as the transport crisis continues to cripple transport and freight between the Sol and Alpha Centauri systems. Moves are already underway to increase the amount of shipping available but it may be years yet before a true regular shipping route comes into being." _

_"Easier communications between Alpha Centauri and Earth today as the expansion of the signal relays on _Ravenbright _ is completed. Having successfully completed testing yesterday, the military owned relays have now been opened to limited civilian use, ending the dependency on the traditional mailbag. _

_The bulk of the transmission capability is still reserved for purely military use, but this does now mean email and simple text messaging services are now available to the residents of the colony world on a subscription basis. _

_It is not yet known if future plans include access to the internet or video messaging." _

_"The Colonial Government has today ended speculation regarding their ship building plans with an announcement that a surface facility was going to be constructed on Freedom. _

_The world, effectively given to the Colonials prior to Disclosure, is home to the Colonial remnant, the survivors of the Cylon destruction of the Colonial homeworlds, Earth borne specialists and a handful of immigrants. _

_It is known that the Colonials had far greater experience with shipbuilding then us prior to their fall and this experience has slowly trickled into Tau'ri practise, but this will be the first attempt by the remnant to new-build full ships, not just fighters and support craft since arriving at Alpha Centauri. _

_It is believed the facility will not see military construction for quite some time, if at all and will instead be focused on the building of merchant ships and passenger liners." _

_"A grateful thanks to the Asgard people today as a fifth refitted _Beliskner _ class ship starts work over the Exeter exclusion zone. The former warships, now considered obsolete in their previous role, have been refitted to slowly contain and gather the radiation left by the dirty nuclear device detonated by the Cylons over the English cathedral city of Exeter . _

_It is hoped the arrival of an additional ship will help speed up the painfully slow process of clearing the area of radioactive particles and reduce the continuing spill over into the rest of the environment." _


	8. Chapter 8

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Eight**

O'Neill sat wearily in his chair, his eyes dark with worry and a slice of fear for his people as he gazed upon his screen, just waiting for the beep that would signal an incoming signal. Any signals today would either be from the mission or a real problem.

He'd made sure of that; no-one would disturb him otherwise.

It wasn't a simple plan, so much could go wrong… and he wasn't at the sharp end, he was simply at base, waiting for news. He hated it, hated that he was no longer fit for the frontline, hated that it simply _hurt _ to get up in the mornings now.

Hated that he sometimes had to use a cane to get around.

It was past time he either retired or slipped even further back into a supporting role, but now wasn't the time. Not when he still had people out there, people acting on his plan, his command.

Maybe afterwards.

Or maybe he was just deluding himself again, high with the idea of being free of his duty, knowing that duty was something he would never truly be free of, it was too much a part of him, his life, his choices, his personality. It had driven him into the ground and gave him the leverage to rise to his feet time and time again.

He knew most of the pieces were in place, knew that a few weren't and knew a few were missing. That was an inevitability of his plan, not all would be able to report and there participation had to be trusted on.

There had been a few surprises and he knew the internal affairs and intelligence boys were collectively having a fit at what Bes had proven to have obtained. He had been tempted to have a word himself but he had heard Thompson had actually blown his stack upon getting confirmation that Bes had Pulse Lasers.

There was an old expression, beware the fury of a patient man.

Thompson didn't blow often but when he did…

Well, he knew he wouldn't have to put his own two cents in.

A beep, his eyes widened and he swiftly tapped open the message.

_'Makesafe reports in position.' _

Good.

He didn't know this Gregori, didn't know what he was capable of but he knew Peters and Thompson wouldn't allow an incompetent into such a position regardless of their political backing. He would just have to trust he was capable.

At least he was in position, time would tell if he actually ready.

Just another piece sliding into place on the board.

God, did he wish he was out with them right now, perhaps sitting in the Admirals seat on the _Atlantis… _ but he couldn't be. His place was here now, with this station he had come to call home.

Is this was Hammond had felt every time he had sent his teams through the Gate?

Most likely, he had been one of the best commanding officers he had ever had and his respect had increased greatly since he had picked up some stars of his own and really learnt what it was like to be the one for whom the buck stopped. Still, it was past time he buzzed the old man, shot the breeze… just never seemed to get the time.

A beep and he tapped away again, _'Starburst'. _

The Tok'ra, Free Jaffa and Tau'ri intelligence operatives would now be moving into position, all blowing or compromising their covers for this one move, this one roll of the dice.

Right now, prisoners were being released, doors being sealed, systems being rerouted, anarchy, chaos, controlled and uncontrolled. Soon, Bes would be questioning exactly how had managed to 'capture' so many Tau'ri in such a short span. Of course, Bes would not have taken all of them with him to Anubis's shipyard, but he would take enough and there were plans in place to retrieve the rest.

Now, it was the turn of the battle, death, destruction, failures, successes…

It was just a roll of the dice, his roll, but no longer his risk, no longer his life in the danger zone. Now he was playing games with the lives of others, deadly games.

He should be out there… but he couldn't be. Age had finally caught up and now, he would be a liability, some to watch not somebody to trust. That hurt, but it was a truth he had to accept, too many years, too many injuries, just too much and now he body had started its rebellion.

It was time for others to take up the realms and he would simply do what he could to give them the best chance, to give all of them the best chance, not just his boys on the sharp end but the civilians back on Earth that he had sworn to protect.

_'Dagger.' _

A simple code phrase, but one which meant so much.

The Jaffa are coming.

His troops were still being released from their cells, the agents at their work, the insertion teams starting to move, all active but not yet co-ordinated. The enemy is surprised, but has the home field advantage and despite the actions of the operatives probably still have some degree of co-ordination.

The mission could end abruptly at this point… the Jaffa are moving but who would be the faster to react, to get co-ordinated? Who would be the most decisive, who would have the most luck, make the most right decisions?

From this remove, he could not effect, not any more. He could only wait and hope.

And be prepared to count the cost.

_"Six mobiles." _

Six ships patrolling the skies around the target, about what was expected. Could be _Ha'taks, _could be _Ha'tens _ or similar. If there had been anything bigger, well, there was a separate code for that as well.

Of course, that was a number subject to change, reinforcements arriving, enemy ships launching, maybe just there being more ships active then the guys on the scene knew about when they sent the signal, it didn't matter. The Battlegroup would go in wary anyway.

The signal was more for them then him anyway.

Six _Ha'taks… _ that was an assumption and didn't account for any _Al-kesh _ or anything but six _Ha'taks, _well that was something the group could deal with. Hell, in a shock horror awe moment of truly epic proportions, the battlegroup would have more warships then the enemy for once. He doubted the Goa'uld would appreciate that as much as his boys no doubt were.

Waiting…

Waiting…

Oh for heavens sakes just send a new message please, just something to let him know how things were going!

Waiting…

Still fucking waiting.

To reiterate and damn, had he been hanging around Carter and Daniel too long, he hated being the one left behind doing the waiting. But that was his place now, duty kept him here.

Sometimes, duty just sucked.

_'Light Fandango.' _

Heh, enter stage left one Battlestar, two cruisers, three destroyers, a planetary assault carrier, a gunboat squadron and a glorified freighter. Oh boy would the Goa'uld end up thinking they were the ones tripping it though no miller would be left behind to tell that tale.

Bes would be though, would love to be the fly on that wall when he tries to explain exactly how the Tau'ri ended up aboard one Anubis's shipyards and how he was not responsible for the fact that his ships were what brought them there!

That's one 'God' who was going to end up doing some praying of their own.

_'Vigilante.' _

Yes! Yes! YES!

_'Flanker.' _

NO!

So both sides managed to get one launched… advantage Goa'uld. They would be familiar with their ship and its capabilities whilst his teams would be learning their prizes eccentricities and capabilities. Both would be distracted by the possibility of hostile forces being aboard…

The group whilst summoned most likely hadn't arrived yet either. Damn, he should have set a code for their arrival as well!

_'Flanker.' _

_'Flanker.' _

Fuck. Gregori had better not be sparing the horses or he would have his arse. They hadn't just… heh, 'borrowed' a _Ha'tak _ from Anubis only to have it blown up before they even got their prize home.

_'Flanker with buster.' _

Flanker with buster?

What in the name of...

Oh.

OH.

Someone had an evil mind, had to be ex-Stargate Command to be that nasty.

Buster was the signal for the shipyard having been successfully mined so a flanker with buster would be an enemy warship that had a nice little wake-up call buried in its innards somewhere.

Let's see; that thing blows, the Goa'uld or some Jaffa realise that the explosion was internal and instead of concentrating on fighting, they're suddenly thinking uncertain thoughts about their own ships and what might be in them.

Now _that's _ what you call distracting.

_'Vigilante.' _

Where's the battlegroup, what are they doing? Are they even there yet? Come on, it's now ten to two and that can't be good. Well, nine to two shortly when that buster got busted. O'Neill wants a big boom, he'll take a _Ha'tak _as deposit but he wants that shipyard to go away!

_'Juno.' _

Well, the group has arrived and felt secure enough to start launching _Paladins _ with additional boarding teams. Either they had some distance between them and the enemy ships or there had already been a bit of a fight.

He would bet on the first, he mind was trying to tell him there had been time enough for the second but the clock disagreed and he knew to trust the clock more.

_'Vigilante.' _

_'Vigilante.' _

_'Flanker.' _

_'Vigilante.' _

Oh come on guys, you're killing me here! Lots of launches but are you getting away with it or simply being blown away? Whose winning, what losses are we taking?

He should ask for a status report… no, he shouldn't. Not the right time to distract the boys on the scene and it wasn't as if he could change anything from here. No reinforcements he sent would get there in time to have a real effect and it would weaken home defence…

But he should be doing something…

Damnit.

_'Buster.' _

Oh boy was Anubis going to be unimpressed… unless of course some overly lucky Jaffa manages to find the little presents and disarm them before it's good night nurse! Doubt that though, possible they could be found but disarming would be difficult and would most likely just trigger 'em. After all, he'd chosen the bomb makers himself and they were all evil fuckers with great experience dealing with 'victim operated' devices, usually from the more pointed end though.

Now come on guys, clear the fuck out of dodge.

_'Vigilante.' _

_'Flanker.' _

_'Etna.' _

Etna… as in Mount Etna . Boy, hope they had their cameras running, if not well d'oh! Should be a nice little fireworks display, one to really warm his heart and piss Anubis right off.

Of course, pissing Anubis off not always a good idea but hey, have to get your kicks where you can right?

_'Hermes.' _

They were out… and now to wait.

Son of a bitches better had deal with any tails they pick-up.

Fuck, he hated waiting.


	9. Chapter 9

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Nine**

With a sigh, he glanced around the room for what had to be the thousandth time, grimacing at the fireworks the movement sent off inside his head. He knew there were be a wait but boy, did it make it hard not to worry when the wait was so long. After all, he team would truly be in the crapper if this nice little plan of the Generals didn't exactly go to schedule.

"Any ideas how long this will take?" Thompson bitched making him roll his eyes, he knew the guy was nervous but come on, that was the twelfth time n the last hour he had asked that! "I'm tired of getting hand jobs off the Goa'uld!"

Of course it had to be Higgs who responded to _that _ slip of the tongue, "Hand jobs? You have been getting a different… ahem 'torture' then the rest of us haven't you?"

The Marine flushed, "you know… hand device…. Oh you know what I meant."

"No I don't," the glint was very firmly in the Privates eyes, "perhaps a rephrase is in order?"

The look he gained in response could best be described as murderous but Thompson just clamped his mouth shut and refused to comment further. He didn't blame him, when Higgs got started, well; it wasn't always easy to get him to stop.

"Still, he does have a point," Higgs mused, glancing at him, "any ideas?"

With a sigh, he shook his head, "No, and we won't know until…"

He cut himself off as familiar noises started to fill the air, coming in through the bars of the cells door followed a few minutes later by a vaguely familiar face.

"…Zat fire sounds outside and a Free Jaffa agent appears in the doorway to set us free."

That got him an amused glance from Higgs but he was too busy trying to deal with the marching band that had set up shop inside his head as soon as he rose to his feet to worry.

Fucking Goa'uld hand devices.

The door clanged open and the Jaffa strode into the room, followed by a petite female wearing the clothes of a Lo'taur and the attitude and bearing of a career soldier. Gratefully, he stepped out of the and strode over, stripping the staff weapons and Zat off the nearest off the dead Jaffa and noting with grim pride that for all they had been tortured and had to be in quite some pain themselves, his team hadn't hesitated to follow him.

With a nod of acknowledgement at Piers who was stripping the other Jaffa , he glanced towards their rescuers, one eyebrow raised querying.

"Change of plans," the Lo'taur turned Soldier responded briskly, "the nearest available ship has been mined, the next one along, well…"

He saw the smirk she exchanged with the Jaffa warrior and became curious.

"…it isn't a _Ha'tak. _Don't think O'Neill will be complaining though."

"Oh? What is it then?" It was after all a perfectly reasonable question.

"You'll see."

That answer in the middle of a covert… well, not exactly covert anymore mission wasn't appreciated so much. Not much he could really do about it though except to make a mental note.

A familiar clumping filled the air and he glanced around, seeing Shoketa was the only one now without a weapon he tossed his staff weapon across and raised his Zat, waiting for the Jaffa to appear.

He didn't bother to gesture his squad into cover, he knew them too well, but a second glance at the two new arrivals he decided wouldn't go amiss. It also proved to be unnecessary.

The Jaffa appeared around a corner and twenty seconds later six more dead Jaffa lined the corridor.

With a mental pat on the back for such a quick action, he gestured at Piers and Thompson to shove the bodies into the cell behind them. It wasn't much of a hiding place but it may well delay their discovery, certainly they would be less obvious and that may be enough.

A few minutes later he was following the two as they led the team through the stations corridors and grinning occasionally as shudders and thuds were felt though the desks of the station.

Somebody was throwing a party of their own and had remembered to bring their fireworks. Pity they couldn't use the ones inside his head, they really were quite potent…

Something was tickling at the back of his mind as they strode swiftly through the corridors and they had gone almost three hundred yards before he realised what it was, "Where's the Gold?"

"Huh," came the exclamation form Higgs, "knew something was bugging me. This is rather utilitarian isn't it?"

"By Goa'uld standards yes," turned, gazing intently at the walls, "but I have heard about this. Anubis and Maktenos have both been losing ships in the dozens and even hundreds occasionally. If we were in one of the main areas of the station or the Goa'uld quarters we would still see the decoration but elsewhere…"

"They're cost-cutting?" he couldn't help but ask incredulously, but then he had to admit, it would take a shit load of resources to replace all those ships, let alone to build a shipyard like this. To decorate the entire thing as well…

Well, he would bet even with the 'cost-cutting' the Goa'uld were having to deal with raw materials shortages right now, gold being one of them.

He glanced forward quizzically as the Jaffa stepped forward and turned into a room and he started to follow then stopped abruptly as he caught sight of ten more Jaffa in the room.

'Oh fuck' was the thought that ran through his head even as he started to raise his Zat, a movement that was stillborn as the Jaffa in the room nodded welcome.

Son of a bitch could have warned him…

He heard a rumbling and glanced across to see an armoured viewport slide open and their Jaffa escort simply gesture through the window. He took a step forward, glanced out and found an involuntary smile crossing his face.

Perfection.

"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!" He heard Higgs blurt and he to restrain a grin. He didn't blame him, but damn was she right. O'Neill wouldn't mind this at all.

"A _Ha'ten, _" he noted, sharing a grin with Thompson, "I approve."

"Thought you might," came the dry reply from behind, "this wasn't originally one of Anubis's, it was built by Maktenos but Anubis got his slimy hands on it and has Jaffa and slaves just finished upgrading her."

It was hard to resist, "for sale, one Goa'uld destroyer; has had two less then careful previous owners. Selling due to fire…"

"Yes," he glanced over at Higgs as he snorted, "enemy fire!"

Swallowing a laugh at the addition, he glanced around, "so, how are we going to do this?"

"The usual way?" Higgs noted, "seize the Pel'tac, kill anyone who tries to stop us, then start sweeping through the decks?"

That actually sounded about right. Damn, were they getting predictable or what?

* * *

"The mood will be good when the battlegroup returns,"

"You assume success,"

"True, but the plan though complex is sound. I would worry more about the reaction then the mission itself."

"Maybe, O'Neill believes a strike in force by Anubis is merely a matter of time now."

"I agree and that may be to our benefit. Should the strike be turned back with heavy losses on our side then we could say it was O'Neill's brashness that inspired the Goa'uld strike."

"There is a risk in that; that the attack may actually succeed. If the fools would do what is necessary to keep Earth safe, to arrange the fairer distribution of resources to our military…"

"They act under the constraints of democracy,"

"And they should not. Democracy is for a nation that is secure and largely unthreatened, but this is a time of war and more stringent forms are necessary."

"You wish to take what resources that the military needs?"

"No, I do intend for a greater proportion to go that way, if our current leadership has the guts we could have twice the ships we have now and they would be more advanced, we would be secure! But in truth, the civilians need to have their turn on the trough. If they do not, then that in itself will cause problems. I presume your planning includes provision for them?"

"It does indeed, alas not all of their measures will be appreciated."

"I care not. They tell us to keep them safe, tie our hands with stupid regulations and controls, deny us the resources required to do what they demand of us and when we fail, lay the blame upon us, not on those who choose to deny us the resources to do our jobs in the first place! If they wanted sympathy, perhaps they should have considered that before asking us to die for them and then ensuring we do.

And worse, they decide that there indirect murders are not enough, that they have to start deliberately seeking out and killing military personnel themselves. Four hundred serving soldiers of the TSS nations dead at the hands of the mob this year alone!

No, I no care little for their needs beyond the minimum needed to keep them under control and doing their jobs and letting us to ours without interference."

"Maybe, but still, much time has been lost. If we are to assume Anubis no-longer intends to play around, then an earlier move would have been to our benefit. Some, even in the military, will resist what is needed. If he attacks before we have consolidated after that chaos, before we have began to gather strength at more rapid pace…"

"Hindsight is always 20-20."

"Truth,"

"The issue will not be _Thundersdawn, Ravenbright _ or even the home fleet or 1st Battlegroup, it will be those elements deployed at great remote. If they decide not to return or to even gather and actively resist we would be hard pressed to deal with them."

"Simply, they must not find out and once we have consolidated here, then we can rotate those ships home and… ah, 'ensure' there loyalty lies in the proper place. If they do not know their intentions and loyalty are questioned, they should have no reason to be suspicious and should sail home quite happily."

"That I grant you, still, we have talked long enough. Just one last thing… I want the start sounded with a death-knell. Pick someone whose removal will greatly disrupt any attempts to resist us and make your preparations."

"I can think of a few who would be better dead then alive on the day."

"Then see to it."


	10. Chapter 10

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Ten**

"I don't like this," Murielle commented quietly, her expression dark as she gazed through the binoculars at the encampment below.

"They're preparing to mobilise,"

"Oh, I agree," she noted, "and you were right to buzz me. But we've had Jaffa doing raids, Jaffa surrendering, Jaffa trying to blend in and make a life for themselves… but this lot. They've set up here since Disclosure and not moved… they've even farmed for supplies for fucks sake and _now _ they choose to mobilise?"

"They don't have strength enough for any major moves,"

"That," Murielle noted darkly, "would depend on what the rest of us are up to at the time."

This was considered for a moment by her companion, then "shit."

"I think its time we brought this bunch in for questioning,"

"They may have just been told to prepare to move, they might not have their mission orders yet."

Murielle gazed across the small encampment and shook her head, "no, the way they're moving… I think they know exactly where they're headed."

"Well, they're not the real problem. The bastards we don't know about…"

She nodded, "I think we need to issue a stage 2 alert right now."

* * *

"Undocking now,"

The voice was quiet over the borrowed radio but he winced anyway, hoping the small group of Jaffa around the corner hadn't heard.

The clumping stopped and then reversed and he knew his prayer wasn't to be answered. A pity; still…

He shot Shoketa a look and gestured for a grenade. With a nod, the small globe of a Goa'uld shock grenade was pulled from the soldiers webbing and a quick three count later, tossed swiftly forwards, bouncing off the far wall and around the corner.

He felt the distinctive brief moment of disorientation that signalled a shock grenade going off nearby but not near enough to disable. That was his signal and in that moment, was already slipping his head and his left arm around the corner, Zat in hand and firing.

He felt a tap on his back and dropped to his knees, a few moments later he could see the brilliant actinic glare of Zat fire volleying form above his head as well.

A staff weapon opened and eyes widened, he took a swift step back, bumping into a set of legs. The corner of the corridor flared brilliantly orange for a moment and a few splatters of molten metal filled the air.

He took a step forward, head and arm around the corner once more, looking for the Jaffa that had fired but he was already dropping to the ground, his armour sparkling slightly for a moment with the afterglow of a Zat burst.

Two more shots; carefully choosing his targets, then it was over.

He signalled a pause and listened for a moment, wondering if another group of Jaffa had heard and were closing in. He heard nothing and signalled Thompson to go down the corridor, beyond the fallen Jaffa and guard, Piers he signalled as the rear-guard and then stepped out into the corridor, noting with glee that several of the Jaffa had manacles on their belts.

Either they were expecting to take prisoners or… or what he didn't know. What he did know is that it would allow him to eke out their own supply a little longer. There were a lot of Jaffa on this ship and whilst some were dead or dying, a lot weren't and their Free Jaffa allies did insist were possible that captured Jaffa should have the chance to renounce their False Gods.

Didn't bother him to much, killing prisoners however did. He would leave the treatment of those who failed to make the safe choice to the Jaffa .

Right now, he had to make this quick though and get this lot to the main cargo bay. They still had a lot of decks to search, he just hoped the Free Jaffa were up to the job of commanding this ship in battle, it wasn't as if any of them had had the opportunity before after all.

* * *

"I can see where Sarah is coming from," Billingsgate noted, "hell, I'll back her up in this, the quality of some of the greenies I'm getting just isn't up to par, they simply don't have the flight hours and my squadron commanders are all burning valuable flight time on training missions because of this. I just don't see how we're going to manage it."

"The funding…"

"Is an issue of course, but we have five fighter squadrons either forming or reforming at the moment plus two support squadrons. There are orders in the queue for ten more squadrons of support craft… ten!"

Peters whistled, "Hell… I knew it was bad but…"

"I know, I've had a meeting with WingCo Reynolds about this yesterday, passed your message onto him too. He's definitely supportive but… well; you know that old saw about the bureaucracy expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy?"

"Yes?"

"Well, we may have that problem… but we're also seeing the numbers of support craft growing to support the growing numbers of support craft."

She laughed wryly at that, "Well, getting some serious shipping going between Sol and Alpha will help."

"Of course it will… but the merchants will need support ships of their own and sooner or later we'll have to boast our rescue capabilities to cover them as well."

"I know Colonel," Peters shook her head, "our expansion is a little more break-neck then I would like at the moment in every area except actual combatants."

"And that's going to pick up like a bat out of hell once Gaia goes online, assuming funding."

"We have funding for three more ships right now; I would have two of them on the stocks except it would mean no slips empty should we need to do some repairs."

The American nodded, conceding the point, "still… it will just get worse when the final design for the _Starlifter _ is selected but Reynolds informs me that all the designs which have made it to the final stage do have a far greater capacity them the _Airheads _ so hopefully we'll need fewer of them."

"Not the way we're expanding we won't," Peters noted, "and its looking like more then one of the designs may get selected."

"Oh, Ray's gonna love that."

"I know," shrugging, she gestured towards her small kitchenette as she rose from her desk, "but there are two stand-out designs and they both have their advantages. The _Airheads _ aren't going to go away either, as much as it might screw your aerodynamics over, there are some cargos that are just better lifted externally."

"Are we looking at any new countries coming in to help fund all this?"

"A few," Peters replied, refusing to say any more.

"I see…" he raised an eyebrow, then shrugged, "still, I don't want us to get to the point we're we're robbing Peter to pay Paul here."

"Little late for that," came the reply, "our budget already exceeds the total income of certain western nations I could mention and still… Finance is actually considering issuing war bonds again… war bonds for God's sake!"

"Is that even legal nowadays?" Billingsgate noted, "I mean the financial laws aren't what they were during the Second World War."

"Apparently so," she shrugged, "the cash injection would be nice but I don't see this war being finished in my lifetime. Frankly, having to start paying back the bonds whilst we're still involved in the fighting might cause issues. Not really my call that one though…"

He snorted, "Glad its not mine either… but Sarah isn't the only one pushing for more Squadrons."

"How many?"

"Frankly?" Billingsgate shrugged, "between Earth, Alpha Centauri, Edonia our deployments 'overseas' and having availability for offensive operations… between us and the Colonials we have twenty-six combat squadrons of which only fifteen are fully operational. Not only would I like to see that doubled…"

Peters winced but he hadn't finished, "but I would like to at least four of those Squadrons based in Earth orbit, not the surface. The surface to orbit time is murderous."

"Good luck getting that in a hurry," she replied dryly, "Oh, don't misunderstand me, I certainly want fighters in orbit, the difference that will make to the reaction times… well, it wasn't that long ago we had one of the _Ha'taks _ being used as a fighter base in orbit and that certainly made the point."

"I may just push for that again, at least until we get something more permanent," he noted, nodding gratefully at the steaming mug he was handed.

" _Lancers _ and _Vipers _ take up the least deck space," Peters noted, "but the _Lancers _are being phased out and we don't have any spare _Vipers. _ It would have to be _F-302's." _

"Same basic profile as a glider," Billinsgate noted.

"But only one operational squadron in this system," she replied shaking her head, "and that's based here."

"I know," he replied, sighing, "this is a large part of my problem. We have no fighter reserves at all. Well, except for the _Darts _and they are a last resort."

"We need more of everything," came the swift reply, "but we're not going to get it. Right now, we should consider ourselves lucky…"

She stopped abruptly as the tannoy sounded and the lights flicker to a new colour. Her cup dropped, bouncing across the sink as she dived out of her offices and into the bridge, the Colonel following swiftly behind.

"Why are we at Yellow alert?"

"We just got word from Manston," came the grim reply, "the outer perimeter just got breeched by Jaffa ."


	11. Chapter 11

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Eleven**

"This is a move I did not anticipate,"

"Neither did I, nevertheless, it may serve our needs perfectly if the enemy ends up in the right place."

"I have seen no signs that they have made any moves at all in the direction of the primaries."

"Because such reports are being lost in the mass of data that they have to oversee at the moment."

"Ahh… would I be correct in assuming that even if the enemy doesn't make it that far, they will make it that far?"

"Indeed so."

"Then the time to move…"

"Comes swiftly, but it not yet here. I would suggest readiness and an open eye for opportunity."

"So be it."

* * *

The words were like a punch to the gut, they had known the Goa'uld were coming but their two prime suspicions had always been an assault through the Stargate or a naval assault supporting the landing of ground troops… maybe even both.

What had to be the landing of troops by stealth in preparation for a ground attack had never been a major concern, not form the Goa'uld. That was a human tactic; it was too subtle for most Goa'uld.

But Maktenos and Ba'al, both had more brains then most of their ilk and both were willing to be sneaky. She doubted Maktenos, for all he was an arsehole he had a good sense of what was in his own best interests and he was taking far too much advantage of the cease fire to want to risk it.

Ba'al… it would be up his alleyway but the Free Jaffa were still pursuing him and his forces were in full retreat several months of flight time by _Ha'tak _ away. It was possible but not likely.

Anubis wasn't really one for the subtle, it could be an unknown Goa'uld or even one of the pirate or mercenary bands but her gut told her it wasn't.

But now wasn't the time for woolgathering, now was the time to react.

"What do we have on the ground at Manston right now?"

"Four squadrons, 17, 20, 194 and 889."

Two support squadrons and two combatant… weren't Number 1 squadron patrolcraft usually based there as well? Yes, but they were deployed with the Battlegroup, no need to worry about them being caught on the ground with their pants down at least.

The _Lancer _squadron could assist the ground troops, the rest…

"Signal 17, 20 and 889 Squadrons to disperse to orbit and 194 to support ground troops… modify that, 889 to launch and be prepared to transport reinforcements to Manston… and find some reinforcements for them to deploy!"

Of course, there was another worry…

"Signal all home defence assets to General Quarters. This could still be the prelude to a Naval assault!"

A two pronged assault… if this fucker, whoever it was was smart enough to be sneaky then he may be smart enough to take full advantage of that. If it wasn't for the reports of Jaffa , she would almost think it was the Cylons.

* * *

Murielle was not amused.

"Fuck!"

"I know,"

Her binoculars didn't leave the Jaffa troops… as they calmly trooped into a trio of transports. Troop transports that looked to be based on the Cylon design but definitely included Goa'uld technology.

Well, it pretty much confirmed they were Anubis's troops. Son of a bitch was actually bothering to retrieve the bastards!

And here she was without the moxie to do anything about it.

"Raise Manston," she barked, "maybe we can get some fighters out here before they jump out again."

Ignoring the soldier as he slipped backwards on the ground behind her, she kept her eyes firmly on the transports except for a swift circuit of the area every few seconds. The tone on the radio behind her changed and she frowned, but didn't cease her vigil.

Then she felt more then heard a form slithering up beside her once more.

"Couldn't get Manston… they're frequencies are flooded. St Athens is just a black hole right now… from the transmissions we can pick up it looks like Manston is under attack. Trying to get a hold of _Thundersdawn _ now."

"Forget it," she noted, "if there is an attack underway getting through to the Big Top will be a bastard. Try those Territorial's two villages over."

"They won't get here before those transports lift off."

"That's what the LAWs are for… disable the transports then fighting retreat to the Terrors."

"Two laws… grenades?"

"Have to be,"

There was a pause, a quietly muttered 'if you can't take a joke…' then the form behind her started to slid backwards to pass the instructions to the other two members of the team.

She hid a grin; Four against Thirty… should be fun, her kind of fun.

Still, she noted to herself, if this was a retrieval it confirmed one thing; Anubis was desperately short of Jaffa if he was bothering to try retrieving these scraps.

* * *

"Admiral!"

There was a tone that could cut through the babble of a Command Centre in the middle of a crisis like a hot-knife through butter... warm butter. It was a tone that spoke louder then any words that 'I think there may be something wrong, I'm not sure but if it is, its bad, real bad.'

She hated hearing that tone, but it seemed she heard it a minimum of once a month, usually more.

"Yes Petty-Officer?"

"St Athens appears to be off the Air… I am having difficulties raising El Toro as well."

It was hard to bit back a response that could best be described as unladylike but she did it.

"Get me Satellite recon or an overflight _now. _"

A new certainty filled her mind, once this was over; heads were going to roll again. Given her prime responsibility was preventing exactly this; she rather suspected her career not survive it this time.

Pity, but the crisis had to be dealt with first before she could worry about that.

"Priority signal from the Battlegroup,"

They were on their way home and their initial report stated damage and casualties were relatively light. What could they need that would be so important right now… Wait….

What could they need to _report _ that could be so important?

She thought, not for the first time, that the most evil being in existence was an Irish devil by the name of Murphy.

"Yes?" Peters barked, mildly annoyed as the pause continued and no report.

"Sorry Ma'am… Admiral Gregori reports engaging a Goa'uld convoy on a straight line course for Bernard's Star."

Bernard's Star?

After Alpha Centauri, that was the closest system to Earth… and what did he mean by a convoy? That wasn't exactly standard Goa'uld procedure.

She raised an eyebrow as the comm. Officer glanced away from his console with a puzzled frown, "states it includes two _Ha'taks, _ten _Al-kesh, _six _Tel'tacs, _two large troop transports and six large vessels of unknown type."

"That is a convoy,"

The implications were frightening, they knew there was no Goa'uld outpost at Bernard's Star requiring supplies, or at least they hadn't been as of the last fly-by and those were done weekly. In fact…

"When's the next recon to hit Bernard's?"

There was a pause, then "_Potemkin _ should have arrived in Bernard's Star an hour ago. Hasn't yet responded to the recall but isn't due to check in for another hour."

_Potemkin… _ A _Dauntless _ I funded by Russia . Solid crew, disciplined, they would not have ignored a recall.

"Try and raise the _Potemkin, _make it a priority signal. Also alert the 7th Patrol squadron, I want an _Al-kesh _C prepared for an immediate in-and-out sweep of Bernard's Star."

"Admiral?"

She glanced behind and nodded tightly at Captain Marks Junior, "O'Neill may have been right. The Battlegroup discovered what appears to be a supply convoy heading towards Bernard's Star and a destroyer we had patrolling the system, the _Potemkin… _"

"Still no response Ma'am."

Peters nodded acknowledgement of the comment but her eyes didn't leave the Captains, "Is _Thundersdawn _ ready to fight?"

"Always," came the dry reply, "you wouldn't let it be any other way."

"True," Peters nodded, "but the station isn't my Command any more and hasn't been for a long time. Still… we have little physical evidence but it is my belief that a major assault on this or the Alpha Centauri system is now imminent."

"I see," she hid a grateful smile as the American, new to his post, just considered her statement for a moment then accepted it, "then I shall retire to the bridge and leave the Command Centre to you. Try not to get my new toy too bent up will you?"

"I shall try," she doubted that the smile was reaching her eyes but he would understand the sentiment, "but the enemy might not co-operate."

"That," came the reply as he strode away, "is why they're called the enemy."


	12. Chapter 12

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Twelve**

_"Sirens are sounding in towns and cities across America today as the Tau'ri Star Service issues a Stage One alert. An attack is now believed imminent and we may have mere minutes of warning before enemy ships arrive in the system. _

_Despite requests to remain calm and the many public service broadcasts by the government since Disclosure advising of what to do in the event of an attack, the response has been all but calm with rioting and looting once again breaking out in our cities." _

_"This is an emergency broadcast. Citizens in the vicinity of El-Toro Spaceport, that is the towns of Irvine , Lake Forrest , Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Dana Point and Mission Viejo are advised to immediately seek shelter. All curtains and blinds should be closed and if possible, you should seek the cover of a storm shelter, under your stairs or any other structural strongpoint within your premises. _

_You are advised to remain calm and obey the instructions of ground forces should fighting spread to your area. _

_Engaging enemy forces is strongly dis-advised and should only be done if there is immediate risk to you, your family and any other persons with you. _

_Above all else, you are requested and advised to remain calm." _

_

* * *

_

_"Extraordinary scenes and extraordinary pictures coming in as fighting reaches a peak around Manston with Goa'uld forces and human ground troops waging a fierce battle for the base. _

_From here I can see several craft burning on the flight line, not just atmospheric fighters either, the two fiercely burning craft you should be able to see just short of the runway are a _Paladin _transport and a _Lancer _ fighter. _

_Already we have been forced to move several times now as the fighting ebbs and flows, not just around the famous Airbase and Civilian airfield, but into the surrounding town as well. _

_The casualties have not just been restricted to the military, we have seen a number of civilian casualties including a team of Firefighters who appear to have been trying to stem the fires set by the fighting but we found and cut down by the Goa'uld forces. _

_Wait… _

_Okay, we have a pair of _Paladins _ coming in now, the doors are open… its looks like they're bringing in reinforcements. _

_Yes… _

_Yes! _

_I can see soldiers now leaping out of the lead craft, the second is now… _

_Oh my god. _

_It's just… _

_My god. _

_Okay, I don't know if the camera was pointing the right way but the 2nd _Paladin _just got shot down. I can't see who fired on it but whatever it was it fired, it wasn't a missile… and it caught the craft straight in the open side door. I could see a soldier in the door preparing to leap out as it hit. _

_The craft is now burning and the debris has scattered everywhere. I can see a hole in the side of the 1st _Paladin, _it looks like everyone got out but that craft is starting to burn as well. _

_Hold on a minute… _

_Okay, we can now hear somebody moving downstairs. _

_I just hope it ours guys otherwise… _

_There's a _Lancer! _ Its shield is glowing, certainly taking some hits but giving them too. I can see any weapons left on the rails, but it still has it lasers and its using them. _

_Wait… now they're coming up they're coming up the stairs. _

_Okay, I really hope they're friendly now. _

_Really hope… _

_Oh Lord…" _

_

* * *

_

_"…again, any persons witnessing the movement of Jaffa troops or spacecraft are requested to immediately seek shelter and contact the authorities, such contacts to be made by landline as radio transmissions such as those used by mobile phones can be intercepted by enemy forces and may result in you being directly targeted…" _

_

* * *

_

_"We are now receiving unconfirmed reports that the _Potemkin, _a Russian funded warship of the _Dauntless _ class is overdue from a patrol of the local area and may have been destroyed. _

_What we do know for definite is that Admiral Peters at _Thundersdawn _ has been in contact with _Ravenbright _station and General O'Neill to arrange a scouting mission to the vessels last known location. _

_The _Potemkin, _a relatively new ship, has not yet fought with the First Battlegroup but has been involved in several smaller engagements and its crew are known to be competent and well drilled. The destruction of such a ship and crew without giving any opportunity for a warning to be broadcast would require a significant force. _

_This brings the number of Tau'ri warships lost or believed lost to six since the war with the Goa'uld started and that does not including allied vessels." _

_

* * *

_

_"News just in from our affiliates on Alpha Prime, the patrol sent to Bernard's Star has already returned from their scouting mission. Of the two vessels sent, one broke up on exiting hyperspace and the second is being towed into _Ravenbright _ station by _Shunter _ class tugs. _

_Whilst no official statement has yet been released by the TSS, one conclusion is very much evident. _

_Hostile forces are present in one of the closest star systems to Earth. _

_Again, if you have just joined us, a recon patrol sent to Bernard's Star, lost known location of the _Potemkin _ has returned heavily damaged. _

_No reports have been received yet as to casualties." _

_

* * *

_

_"By order of Governor General Holmes and under the advice of Major General O'Neill, all civilian and non-emergency communications between the Alpha Centauri and Sol systems as well as non-emergency radio transmissions in the Alpha Centauri system are hereby suspended until further notice." _

_

* * *

_

_"The Colorado Stargate is now reported to have been blocked by an incoming wormhole, preventing the further movement of troops and supplies between Earth and her off-world military bases and her allies. _

_It is known that the Stargate has a cut-off time of just under forty minutes, but if the rumours are to be believed, whoever is dialling in is managing to redial and lock the gate faster then the Earth built dialling computers we use can dial out. _

_This particular act, combined with the movement of Jaffa forces now confirmed at Manston and St Athens in the United Kingdom, Darwin in Australia, and El Toro and the Cape here in the states can only mean one thing. _

_An invasion is no longer a suspicion or rumour, it is here and now. _

_May God help us all." _

_

* * *

_

_"I mean, they tell us they're coming and with the awful news of those attacks by the Jaffa warriors and the locking of the gate… even the loss of those dear boys on that Russian warship we have to concede that the threat is real. _

_The question is when? _

_The first attack was reported almost a day ago now and there is no report yet of their warships actually arriving… and I don't think they would be able to keep something like that quiet for long. I mean, they did such a good job hiding the fact that an attack was on its way. _

_Then; where is the 1 st Battlegroup, where are almost a dozen of our warships including our most powerful whilst this is happening? _

_And perhaps most importantly, what are we going to do when they God-less ones do finally arrive?" _

_

* * *

_

_"It was awful, I mean… _

_It was just so quiet, a beautiful spring morning, the birds had woken me up and I was just making a cuppa and then it got a bit darker and I looked up. The curtains were still closed but they're not that dark and I could see figure after figure striding past. _

_I thought it was strange, so many people walking past so early and I went back upstairs to an open window and these guys… just so big and their funky armour and weapons and I just knew. _

_I mean, even though I lived right next to Manston, and living in a place like that you have to know it's a prime target but you never really believe its going to happen, you know? _

_Anyway, I race into the next bedroom and wake the kids up, tell 'em to get dressed and to duck into the old Anderson shelter that's still hidden in the back garden from the last war and as I'm doing this, I suddenly hear these odd whooshing sounds, its must have been the staff weapons firing, then there's guns too but so few of them and they don't keep firing for long. _

_The siren… oh lord the base siren then sounds and you think you're ready for it, but you're just not. Not even when… when you've seen the enemy go past and heard the firing and you know it's real. _

_I mean, I was thinking how I had to get the kids to safety, how I had to hide but at the same time, I know people on that base. I mean, Michelle, one of my best friends was an air traffic controller whilst it was still Kent International Airport and when Disclosure came and it became entirely military again, she stayed on still in the tower. _

_Most of the people around here have friends in the base, I mean, I must know at least a dozen people closely and many more…" _

_"And what of your friend Michelle, do you know where she is now?" _

_"Yes I… _

_I know. I saw her, just lying there. Too silent, she's never silent, but just lying there in the middle of the road. I saw movement and I thought for a moment she might actually be alive but it was just a bird, it was… _

_It was just pecking at her eyes. I… I wanted to order the kids back into the house, but I couldn't. I had glanced inside when the all-clear side and there was blood everywhere and a soldier, she can't have been more then nineteen, just lying across the kitchen worktop. Only, she… she was just so slack so still and there was a pool of blood all around her. _

_I didn't touch her, I didn't dare. _

_I went upstairs, hoping to find my daughters shoes, she hadn't taken them as we fled the house earlier and they're were these… I think it was a news crew in her bedroom. The camera, the lights were still on, it may have been running still. I hope, there were three of them and the two men, they looked to have died quickly, but there was a young lady there as well and… _

_I don't think she died quickly at all. _

_Michelle… Michelle was actually worse. I could see what killed her, there was a hole, just a hole in her chest but you could almost fit your hand in it with the fingers spread wide and the look on her face… _

_I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that look. _

_I didn't want the kids to see it, but everywhere you looked…" _

_"How did you deal with that?" _

_"I wanted… I wanted to tell them to shut their eyes, to lead them away but I couldn't. I could still hear some weapons fire in the distance and there were shell casings, bullets everywhere. Just a hundred yards down the road I could see a crater and there were these small… I think they're called bomblets, like form cluster bombs everywhere. _

_I couldn't… couldn't cover there eyes, they had to see where they were stepping in case… in case they stepped on something and set it off so as we walked, just walked along this road, they had to see everything. _

_Not just the dead, but the dying, the screaming… _

_"I'm sorry to interrupt but we've just received word from the main office. _

_As of ten minutes ago, Admiral Peters has ordered all military units to General Quarters and has signalled to prepare to engage the enemy. _

_They're here." _


	13. Chapter 13

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Thirteen**

There are days when I wished I had stayed in bed, days when nothing seems to go right, when the jackhammers set up residence in my skull, when the politicians are visiting and when I have to write one of those dreadful, 'I regret to inform you…' letters.

This is certainly one of those days, and I suspect at the end I will be writing more then one of those letters.

We knew an attack was coming. Oh, there was never any real evidence, not until today, but we knew what was coming. Call the old soldiers friend, call it instinct, call it a gut reaction, call it what you will.

We knew.

We just didn't know how much of an attack and By God I wish we had. If we had known, I would never have allowed the Battlegroup to deploy.

"General signal… Zulu Zulu Zulu."

The voice is mine, but it can't be, its too assured, too calm, too... not scared.

Right now my heart thunders in my chest, my palms are slick and I can feel sweat dripping down my forehead. We've seen battles with more enemies, fought in maybe two or three with the Goa'uld…

But never these numbers, not in the Sol system.

I don't think we have the strength to fight them off with what we have. If they weren't ignoring _Thundersdawn… _

But they are and we're badly placed for an attack on Earth. We can command but none of our weapons have the reach.

"Flash message to the 1st Battlegroup… recall 'em and tell Admiral Gregori not to spare the horses. Also flash traffic for…"

I am interrupted and I glare at the Lieutenant but that glare changes to a wince. I was going to ask O'Neill for reinforcements but there will be no reinforcements from Alpha Centauri, not today.

Not with their own attackers to deal with.

Ten _Ha'taks, _a _Cheops, _three _Ha'tens, _two bastard children of a Basestar and a _Ha'tak. _ Against them I have four destroyers, two cruisers and an unrefitted _Ha'tak _plus a desperately small fistful of smaller warcraft.

I resist the urge to cry and harden my heart.

This will be painful, I may not succeed in pushing them back but try I must else we lose all.

"Priority signals to the Free Jaffa and anyone else you can raise… request reinforcements. Signal the 3rd , 5th and 8th Starfighter wings… I know they're still reforming but they're to launch with what they have."

They will suffer for that choice but I have no choice. If it can fight, I will need, if it cant fight I may still need it to fight anyway.

"Signal the minor craft… no cave. Not this time, all _Paladins, Shunters, Airheads, _even the shuttles are to arm up as best they can and move to defensive positions as per the Maginot plan."

They too will pay the price for that.

But then, there will be a true butcher's bill today and we may well all pay.

The icons track slowly across the display and what I see pains me. The Goa'uld arrived already concentrated but our forces were spread out and are racing to gather.

We need time and I don't think we have it.

"How many _Paladin _ gunboats do we have?"

Six.

May it be enough.

I order them in but not alone.

Six icons flash from the screens, four from around Earth and two that had just launched from my station, another group in Earths orbit also disappears.

They appear mere moments later close to the enemy warships. The reaction is almost instantaneous, fighters finally swarming out and the _Ha'tens _ moving swiftly towards the small craft.

The fight begins with an alpha strike.

Twenty _Striker _ Maritime Strike fighters, each mounting twenty-two missiles, _Sparrow _ and _Sidewinder _ refurbs, they fire eighteen each.

The _Paladins _are of two gunboat designs but they all have fourteen missiles loaded. They fire twelve, keeping two in reserve.

In all I see Four-hundred and thirty-two icons separate and speed towards the Jaffa warships as the _Strikers _and _Paladins _turn and flee, waiting for their hyperdrives to recharge so that they may return and reload.

I see two _Paladins _ and a _Striker _ disappear from my screen and I am chilled but I know the dying had just begun.

The missiles also start to disappear as _Udajeet _, _Al-kesh _ and the guns of the warships themselves begin to speak and I voice another command.

Moments later icons flash across the screen once more, the _Lancer Interstellars _of Eagle squadron, the _Vipers _ of Cobra squadron.

Another three-hundred and sixty missiles separate and begin to flash towards the Goa'uld warships but the Cobras have misjudged the jump and appear to close. They have fired from above the enemy which reduces the number of weapons which can be brought to bear but those that can fire are the main guns.

What they do to a fighter, even a shielded one, is brief and final. The Eagles fired down at the enemy as well but from further away, but not one _Viper _ of Cobra squadrons manages to get clear.

The 1st missile strike targets a single _Ha'tak, _by the time they arrive they have mere fumes in the thrusters and nothing in the main engines, nevertheless seventy-eight of the aging missiles get through and I smile a moment as first I watch the shields disappear then the _Ha'tak _itself.

One down, fifteen to go.

The 2 nd salvo is split, the missiles fired by the Eagles all head for a _Ha'ten _ but between range and enemy fire none make it through. The missiles fired from the Cobras have to find their own targets and they do taking their toil from amongst the _Al-kesh _ bombers and the various fighters the Goa'uld had launched.

It's a start but only a start and I speak again.

The fleet moves.

_Invincible, Despite, Searcher, Sentry, Jinaghu, Yuri Gagarin, _four destroyers and two cruisers, in a moment they appear to the port of the enemy fleet as they advance.

They fire… one target, another _Ha'tak, _two gauss rifles per ship. The enemy fleet is responding even as our own ships begin to drop out of hyperspace, it is a _Ha'tak _ that fires the first shot, intersecting _Despite _ in a shot that would have earned any Tau'ri gunner an instant Mention in Dispatches.

The ship survives, its shields taking the shot as they are meant to but the enemy rapidly co-ordinates its fire and I grimace. Then the targeted _Ha'tak _ begins to slip back, a _Ha'ten _ intersecting itself between us and the weakened vessel.

Anubis is learning… worse, his forces are learning.

But these are not the only sharks in this water.

Six more ships flash out of hyperspace, this time beneath the enemy fleet but already angling upwards and the 5th Patrolcraft Squadron adds its own volleys.

Its shields fail momentarily then came back up with renewed strength but the damage is done. The vessel ceases to manoeuvre but no other damage is evident from the sensors and I have to conclude its engines are hit.

_Despite _ vanishes from the sensors and my heart clenches for a moment but then she reappears back in Earth orbit, I touch her icon and her status appears before my eyes. Her shields are shredded but with time and energy they can be reformed.

She will be able to rejoin before the enemy reaches Earth.

I speak once more and the fleet disappears, flashing back into being around their wounded companion. As much as they may wish to stand and fight, it is not time for that yet. Best to weaken the enemy as much as possible with hit and runs strikes before they reach the orbit of the moon.

That is when the fight will truly begin in earnest.

A new icon appears on the scopes, slowly separating from _Thundersdawn _ and I smile nastily. We may not have pod-layers yet but we certainly had pods and a _Liberty _ could carry three of them.

I take a quick glance around the plot, confirming what I already know, noting the enemy movements as they leave their damaged companion in their wake.

Moments later, hyperspace windows open around the enemy once more and with decisive swiftness the enemy floods the space around with fire.

The drones, each more expensive then your average air-breathing fighter are swiftly destroyed but they have done their task and the Goa'uld are ill-prepared when _Sir Lancelot _appears at their 'rear' accompanied by three Squadrons of _Paladins _ and all the _F-302 _ fighters in the system.

In the space of thirty seconds, just under half of our total stocks of the new _Cobra _ missiles are fired, three hundred and thirty-eight missiles, missiles designed from the start to be used in space, more speed, more fuel and more manoeuvrability.

'Only' One hundred and eighty-two are intercepted, the remaining one hundred and fifty-six target a _Ha'ten _ and one of the hybrids.

The _Ha'ten _ disappears; the hybrid appears to be fine for almost a minute before its icon separates into several smaller and fading dots on the screen.

Three of the enemy are dead but I have expended most of my missiles in doing so not to mention the loss of an entire fighter squadron and the enemy still has the most powerful ship in the system.

It's a start, but it isn't over yet.

Then the screen bleeps and my heart jumps into my chest as a second group of enemy icons appears on the screen.

Six more _Ha'taks _ and they have left hyperspace much closer to Earth.

Shit.

But I have my ace and it's not time to use her yet.

The icon for the damaged _Ha'tak _ flickers and she begins to move once more.

She's separated and vulnerable, now would be the time to deal with her and I check the status of the fighters squadrons, all are showing as rearming or landing. None yet operational…

But I have two _Prometheus _ class cruisers and between them that's sixteen _F-302's. _ I give the word and that _Ha'tak _ gains a few more important things to worry about.

My eyes haven't left the tactical display since the battle begun and odd movement around the station catches my eyes. I frown for a moment and then grin, making a mental note to give somebody a commendation later even as I order _Sir Lancelot _from Earth orbit back to _Thundersdawn. _The request from the tugs to do exactly that sounds in the bustle of the room mere seconds later.

A flash on the screen and then the crippled _Ha'tak _ vanishes. I frown then wince as I realize two of the _F-302's _ had just jumped right into the enemy ship… deliberately.

Instant hard kill, but what a nasty way to….

Wait.

I feel a grin cross my face for a moment and I know it's an evil one.

I knew I had seven hyperspace capable drones remaining and now may be the time to use them.

Six successfully jumped, the seventh failed utterly, destroying itself in the process. Two missed their targets and were swiftly destroyed by the Goa'uld. One appeared in the outer structure of a _Ha'tak, _moments later its icon fades to grey.

Pure mission kill.

The second hybrid disappears from the scopes and an expanding and slowly fading circle appears around it. The enemy were no doubt enjoying that greatest of CGI tricks, the Praxis Wave. I was sure they weren't enjoying as much as a sci-fi buff would.

They're fighters certainly weren't.

The final two attempt to open their hyperspace portals in the space occupied by the shields of the _Cheops _ and are destroyed but they take with them a large section of the enemies shields.

Opportunity .

I speak once more and a new icon appears on the screens for less then two minutes. An Ion cannon fires and the _Cheops _loses one of its four shield generators. Four gauss rifles rake across the hull, destroying guns, launch bays and more. Pulse lasers engage, swiftly spreading the fury to the enemy fighters.

By the time I finally see the icon of the capital ship rotate to turn a still working shield to face the attacker I have already ordered her away.

_Britannica _ has truly announced her presence in style.

She reappears, along with the 5 th Patrolcraft Squadron, the four destroyers and both cruisers in close proximity to the 2 nd enemy group. As my eyes watch what follows my mind is elsewhere, thinking of hyperspace capable drones and an old sci-fi movie by the name of WingCommander.

And of _Skipper _ missiles.


	14. Chapter 14

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Fourteen**

Concentrated fire always tells.

There were five _Ha'taks _in the 2nd group; two minutes after the arrival of _Britannica _ and her consorts there were four, a further four minutes later there were two and a cripple.

I wanted to leave the warships to it, to utterly destroy the _Ha'taks… _ I couldn't afford too. The main group had sped up and were getting dangerously close to Earth... both groups were almost to the Moons orbit.

The 1st group, even weakened as they were, were still very much the greater threat.

A damaged _Cheops, _two _Ha'tens _ and seven _Ha'taks. _ In a straight up-fight we could possibly defeat that but would take grievous losses in doing so, they need to be whittled down further.

It is time for another missile strike, that will likely bare the larder and then it will be guns alone. So be it.

The _Liberty _ is still having her pods replaced, I can not use her and there is not a single squadron that has completely rearmed but there are fighters in space, fighters that have rearmed, that are waiting commands.

Six _Lancers, _twenty _F-302's, _five _Strikers, _all four _Paladin _Gunboats and eighteen general usage _Paladins. _ I debate ordering with myself about ordering them in and decide no.

If there numbers had been greater… but the enemy is wary now. Best not.

The larger group is course that will shortly place them above America … the smaller, Europe and _Gaia… _ that must not be allowed.

If only some of her main defensive batteries were online!

And if wishes were horses…

I order the 5th Patrolcraft wing and the Sol PDF squadron to intercept the two _Ha'taks _ and grimly placed nearly sixty lightly armoured, unshielded _Shunters _and _Airheads _directly between the two enemy warships and the skeletal structure.

They wouldn't be able to do anything about the _Ha'taks _but their pulse lasers made them a threat to any leaking fighters. They would have to do what they could.

At least _Gaia _ had six _Firebird _ platforms to call her own even if none of her _Lancelots_ were finished.

The warships would have to deal with the main enemy fleet on their own for the moment.

_Valour's Sword _ I finally ordered into the fight, joining in at the rear of Earth's scratch fleet, bringing it up to eight warships to deal with Anubis's ten. Not the odds I would have chosen.

Then, in the skies over Earth, battle is joined; I've played chess with my pieces and reduced the enemy as best as I can but now far more control lies with individual ships Captains then it does with me.

The two squadrons of gunboats quickly kill a _Ha'tak _but two of the small expensive warcraft disappear in the process, caught between _Ha'taks, Al-kesh _and fighters.

I see fighters trying to move on _Gaia _ but being painfully intercepted by the gathered support craft. _Britannica _and her consorts swiftly manage to kill a _Ha'ten, _followed by a _Ha'tak _ even as their pulse laser batteries create murderous loses amongst the enemies fighters. But _Despite _ is forced to fall back once more, her place taken by _Valour's Sword _ as she struggles to rebuild her shields.

I see _Valour's Sword _ die a mere four minutes later, victim of concentrated fire from the _Cheops _ and three of the surviving _Ha'taks, _I see _Sentry, _only just out of refit, reel out of formation, spilling escape pods and transports into space.

An icon in orbit near _Thundersdawn _ flickers to green and I smile.

My turn once more.

A minutes later, hyperspace opens up once more this time behind the enemy fleet and out of it drops _Sir Lancelot, _now with only two missile pods and both of the older type that only fires _Sidewinders _. With her is everything that had reloaded.

Fourteen _Strikers, _Sixteen _Lancers, _Forty _Paladins _ and thirty-nine _F-302's. _

The largest missile salvo in the history of the Goa'uld Tau'ri war is then launched and for a moment I almost feel sorry for the Goa'uld as seven hundred and fifty missiles are sent their way.

The enemy responds as I knew they would, turning all the guns they can bring to bear on this new threat, the fighters all racing to intercept the incoming spread.

The Goa'uld was smart; he had set a rear guard, some six _Al-kesh _ and twenty uprated _Udajeets. _ I watch as their icons abruptly disappear from the screen and the bulk of the massive wave of missiles simply carry on.

I see a _Ha'tak _ vanish from the screen, then another.

The _Cheops _ desperately rotates trying to place a working shield segment between itself and the missiles. It succeeds but for mere moments as the missile wave blows that shield apart and missiles began to impact upon the hull itself.

I see with grim satisfaction _Britannica _ suddenly find itself facing the section of hull it raked earlier, a section that was already without a shield generator and begin capitalising.

In that moment, I see opportunity once more.

I order the fighters in, commanded to disable the ships hyperdrives, the warships to deal with the remainder of the fleet. The gunboats, now down to nine, have dealt with the last _Ha'tak _ of the second fleet, I select six to stay behind and mop up the _Al-kesh _ and fighters, the final three swiftly race, not to join the main battle but to escort twenty newly launched _Paladins _ of 31 Squadron and their embarked Marines into the fight and to the _Cheops. _

I watch as _Jinaghu _ is stricken even as the last _Ha'ten _ and a _Ha'tak _ die. Three _Ha'taks _ are left and now they begin to fall back, moving against _Sir Lancelot. _ There was no need to give orders, the auxiliary swiftly turning away and moving away at full burn.

Then the _Ha'taks _are gone followed swiftly by the _Al-kesh, _escaping into hyperspace and with a relieved sigh I realize that, for the moment at least, it is over bar the moping up.

Then a thought strikes me and I feel a chill once more.

The 1st Battlegroup was only at Bernard's Star, they should have been here ages ago… and what of Alpha Centauri?

Then the screen bleeps once more and I feel the blood drain from my face as a _third _ wave appears on the display. Two _Rel'tecs _ with and escort of twelve _Ha'tens. _

I have three Destroyers, one Cruiser and a Battlecruiser, nine craft of the _Blastboat _ and _Gunner _ classes and several depleted squadrons of fighters to face this monstrosity and the larder is starting to run bare of missiles.

This is going to be even nastier then the first and second waves.

I glance across the display, noting swiftly the slow deterioration of the _Cheops _ orbit even as the _Paladins _ shuttle between the massive craft and the surface, placing more and more Marines aboard the massive ship and now doubt taking prisoners out.

The parade is occurring at a more sedate pace around two other craft, both _Ha'taks. _My fighters are still engaged, moping up the _Udajeet _ and other fighters left behind by the first and second waves.

I do not know if I have warship enough but I remember thinking that about the previous waves as well and we are still here. Yet…

The bulk of the work was done by massed missile attacks and that is a capability that now escapes me. In a straight up fight between the remainder of my fleet and this third wave, I know who will win and it will not be us.

But to fight is the only option I… we have.

I give the command once more.

The fleet jumps into hyperspace; their arrival is greeted with massed fire. This enemy is wary and dangerous and I long for the old days when the Goa'uld were brash, arrogant, easy to kill.

Swift concentrated fire kills a _Ha'ten _ but the return fire takes the 5th Patrolcraft squadron to half-strength. Then the icon for a fourth craft, a gunboat strobes and the mark of a disabled hyperdrive appears next to it.

In the middle of a fight like this, that simple icon refers to a death sentence.

I watch as the craft gathers speed, attempts to ram one of the _Rel'tecs _ but is destroyed before it can do any damage. The remaining ships salvo off all their missiles at a _Ha'ten _ but it is not the massed launches of earlier and none get through.

I order the retreat even as a _Ha'ten _dies and _Invincible's _ shields fail. I half expect her not to reappear but she does her icon strobing with the marks of hull breeches and destroyed systems.

Then the enemy fleet stops.

I watch wearily as for four minutes, they do not move at all. In term of battle, that's no time at all but it's enough for _Invincible _ to reform her shields and a scant handful of damage icons to vanish from the fleet.

Then five of the _Ha'tens _ vanish into hyperspace and moments later proximity alerts sound from all five of the Lagrange sensor arrays. Moments later the platforms are gone and the _Ha'tens _ appear in the enemy fleet once more.

This doesn't blind us but its does greatly reduce the range at which we can see and greatly increases the number of blind spots in the system. It is a worry and in more way then one. This guy is smart, _real _ smart and I have a sudden doubt as to whether this attack is actually of Anubis's bidding.

These forces act more like Maktenos's and we are supposed to have a truce with him. But if they are following Maktenos's combat doctrine, first they will blind then…

The icons flow across the screen once more and with regretful resignation I watch as the ships drop out of hyperspace once more around their newest target.

…then they will deal with the enemy Commanders.

They will come for me.

I give my orders once more and the tattered remnants of our Navy flashes back into being beneath the Goa'uld warships, firing up into their engines even as I feel the rumble through the floor grates of the stations own weapons beginning their own dance.

Eight sets of twin linked Gauss rifles along the arms, a further eight Gauss rifles in single mounts scattered across the stations service, of which four can be brought to bear. The twin linked turrets also have missile cells, not yet upgraded to _Cobras _ but its still ten missiles per turret that can be fired off if needs be in a single salvo.

It hasn't been my job to command those for several years but the Captain knows his business and I smile as a _Ha'ten _ is destroyed by pure Gauss fire before its hyperspace portal has finished closing. The station begins to rumble, jerk and shudder underneath the weight of incoming fire and the lights dim as power is diverted, every precious morsel of it being marshalled to the task at hand.

Another _Ha'ten _dies, shredded by the combined fire of fleet. The remaining _Ha'tens _are now angling downwards, turning their fire onto the warships and leaving the massive _Rel'tecs _to deal with us on their own.

My eyes are tracking across the screen, I know something is missing but I can not see what and with a shudder it comes to me. There are no craft of the 5th Patrolcraft squadron left.

I glance across at the stations status and frown as I watched the strength indicator drop rapidly into the yellow and continue to sink. Then the indicator vanishes entirely…

My heart drops into my shoes.

The lights completely flicker off.

There is a shudder, a _heave _ and red lights blink around the insignia of yard 6. That'll put that _Sentinel's _ refit back I consider grimly for a moment

The indicator jumps back into being, green… almost full strength.

Bastard… I can understand having to reform shields in the middle of a battle, dicey though it is but he could have warned us first. I make a mental note to have a word with him about it later.

Another _Ha'ten _dies; I see a shield one of the _Rel'tecs _ fail but the massive ship rotates it away from us before any major damage is done. _Sir Lancelot _ appears beside the station and adds its meagre fire to our own.

Moments later _Liberty _herself appears, adding her own pair of Gauss rifles into the mix. She hadn't been scheduled to arrive from Edonia for almost ten hours; surely it can't have been that long already?

I glance at the cloak and see that it has been longer. Adrenaline and a decent sense of time don't go together that well it seems.

Those _Rel'tecs _ have to go though preferably before _Thundersdawn _ does.

I speak once more and for almost five seconds all the Gauss rifles and _Britannica's _ Ion cannon cease. Then, they speak as one, ignoring the _Ha'tens _ and throwing all their weight onto a single _Rel'tec. _

Joining them are all eighty of the _Sidewinder _and _Sparrow _missiles from the cells mounted on the stations arms. The shield segment facing the station fails first, then the lowest most segment, I glance at the sensor readouts and smile as I watch an entire volley of the stations weapons batteries impact a small section of hull less then five meters by five meters and I know that those shields will not be coming back up.

The massive ships icon abruptly flicks to grey… and then separates into twelve large sections and assorted smaller pieces.

A kill.

But a kill at a cost as _Despite _ once again falls back, this time purely on in-system drives. With shields down, the single concentrated salvo from the surviving _Ha'tens _ can have only one result and one of the newest warships in the fleet abruptly ceases to be.

Then the screen bleeps again and I feel a moment of pure despair in my chest as twenty new contacts appear close behind the Goa'uld. A moment later the IFF's register and I despair no more.

With _Thundersdawn _ and two _Liberty __'s _ firing on one side, a Battlegroup that had apparently brought home the bacon on the other and the in-system ships firing from below, the result was inevitable.

It still took twenty-one minutes by the clock and twelve hours by my own time-sense before the last enemy ship was destroyed. I expected the weapons fire to stop at that point and for a mere minute it did.

I felt it through the deckplates as the ships batteries not only recommenced firing but went to emergency overload. Saw the icons of every ship in the area flicker then turn back towards the station.

Heard the collision alarms sound.


	15. Chapter 15

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Fifteen**

_"The night sky has been lit up over Europe as massive fighting breaks out in our skies. Massive explosions… we are already receiving reports of debris strikes including an unconfirmed report that a hospital outside Munich has been destroyed…" _

_

* * *

_

_"A cautionary Tsunami alert has been issued for the North Sea where the remnants of a _Ha'tak _ class warship of the Goa'uld is expected to impact within the next fifteen minutes. It is unknown what exactly the effects of one of the massive vessels crashing into the ocean will be…" _

_

* * *

_

_"Wave after wave of transports departing and arriving… air breathers bringing ground troops to El Toro , _Paladins _ shifting them out again. We've seen Jaffa being offloaded, most under their own power but dozens in stretchers. Even more in bodybags…" _

_

* * *

_

_"Stunned expressions at RAAF Darwin and mere moments ago, the bases commanding officer appeared and lowered the flag just inside the main gates to half-mast. We're seeing black armbands start to appear as well. _

_We don't know exactly what has happened quite yet, but frankly, it's not looking good." _

_

* * *

_

_"Scenes of frantic activity… what must be at least sixty fighters of various types... they've even parked them on the grass. This is an airbase that had been declared closed due to the recent attack but they're still landing, they're still being loaded up with missiles and then they are out of here. _

_An amazing and scary sight… if you thought this place was a kicked ant hill earlier, then I don't know what to call this now." _

_

* * *

_

_"Coast Guard ships and aircraft are scrambling out of Kodiak right now after reports were received of an escape pod from a _Lancer _ Starfighter crashing into the sea just fifteen miles out and sinking. _

_This type of pod is airtight and it's conceivable that, with the onboard oxygen supplies that the pilot could still be alive. What is not known is how well the tiny craft will stand up to the pressures of the oceans depths. _

_A desperate rescue mission and time is certainly not on the pilot's side." _

_

* * *

_

_"…the most awful sight. I mean, I mean… _

_We heard the boom as the craft went overhead and normally I'd complain but under the circumstances… _

_Then, it just seemed to flick over… one moment it was flying up at about fifty degrees, next it was down and vertical. Hell of a bang when it hit and then the flash… _

_The flash blinded me for a moment and when I looked again there was a crater where the street used to be. Looks like about ten houses just… just gone. I remember thinking 'my god, those are occupied!' and then I saw the smoke start to rise and I just ran towards the town." _

_

* * *

_

_"Receiving reports that _Thundersdawn _station may have been destroyed. This is unconfirmed as yet but the station would certainly class as a prime target in any attack." _

_

* * *

_

_"No word from the TSS yet as to disturbing rumours that number 177 Squadron, known as the Cobras, may have been wiped out in the recent fighting. What is known is that the Squadron lifted off from here, Area 51 several hours ago and whilst craft of the _Paladin, Lancer _and _F-302 _ types have been seen landing and rearming, there are no reports of any _Vipers _ since the squadron scrambled several hours ago now." _

_

* * *

_

_" _Paladin _after _Paladin… _ this is a civilian hospital but it's seeing one of the greatest concentrations of injured military personnel ever seen on the Eastern Seaboard and not all of them American or even human. _

_An urgent appeal has been issued for supplies and qualified personnel to assist with the massive relief efforts but several civilian hospitals have already joined the military in closing their doors and it's barely even begun." _

_

* * *

_

_"Reports of an evacuation underway at _Thundersdawn _station… we're not sure why as yet, but rumours persist of massive damage and some sort of structural failure. We'll have more for you as we get it." _

_

* * *

_

_"Astronomers in Europe have confirmed that an attack on the _Gaia _ station in Earths orbit has been successfully repulsed. We have here exclusive and exciting footage of the battle but I warn you, this might not be suitable for all viewers…" _

_

* * *

_

_"Right now, in the skies above us air-breathing fighters are engaged in a desperate fight with fighters of the Goa'uld, what appear to be _Udajeet _ and at least two other types. We have witnessed the loss of several fighters, a _Hornet _ crashed just three miles away not two minutes ago but these aging craft just don't have the endurance and power advantage of the Goa'uld and they are dying. _

_The question is where are the fighters of the TSS? _

_Why are we paying so much for _F-302's, Vipers _ and the rest if they are going to leave the work to these obsolete craft. It is hoped that when this is done, heads will roll at the so-called 'Tau'ri Star Service'." _

_

* * *

_

_"Rumours of a second wave of attacking craft… maybe even a third… its known that at least one wave of attackers has been repulsed but not without losses. Indeed, whilst no TSS spokesperson can be reached for comment, unofficial sources are pointing towards perhaps half the warships in system having been destroyed." _

_

* * *

_

_"Reports of an attack also underway in the Alpha Centauri system. No word on casualties or strength as yet but any attacking force would have to be pretty significant to even consider facing the strength of _Ravenbrights _ main guns. Such an attack force would simply be able to brush _Thundersdawn _ aside…" _

_

* * *

_

_"A rain of escape pods has appeared in the skies over Belgium stretching the local emergency services to the limit… and not all of them are landing safely on the shore. At least three have been witnessed dropping into the waters of the North Sea . _

_The number of pods seems to indicate the loss of more then one ship… and don't forget one important fact: _

_Almost all of the fleet lacks sufficient escape pods for the entire crew." _

_

* * *

_

_"We can now confirm the loss of a _Prometheus _class ship. This comes from analysis of the amazing footage being released by astronomers of the battle which has occurred within the last few hours in the skies above our head." _

_

* * *

_

_"We're receiving reports that a massive hulk, at least five times larger then a _Ha'tak _ may be about renter Earths atmosphere and possibly impact. This report first came from a group of amateur astronomers in Italy and has now been confirmed by a least a dozen other groups. _

_We'll be showing you the footage in a few moments; the smaller craft you can see appear to be _Paladins _ and _Shunters _ of the TSS." _

_

* * *

_

_"Leakage news from Darwin in Australia has now confirmed the loss of an entire squadron of patrolcraft. The warships, the first to be deployed south of the Equator only reached full strength with the arrival of the sixth and final _Blastboat _ type earlier this year and now the entire squadron has been destroyed. _

_This loss in itself represents a major body blow to the Tau'ri Star Service but combined with the loss of at least one _Prometheus _class ship puts our defences very much in doubt. _

_It is hoped that the 1 st Battlegroup will arrive home very shortly and be able to take over the defence of our homeworld." _

_

* * *

_

_"We can know confirm that an evacuation of _Thundersdawn _station is in progress. No word as yet as to why, but this has to put another major strain on an already stretched military as they struggle to clean up the last of the enemy fighters and regroup following the recent devastating attacks." _

_

* * *

_

_"For the first time since the attack begun we have an official statement from the Tau'ri Star Service and here it is in its entirety: _

_'Three waves of attackers have been successfully repulsed within the Sol System.' _

_This deluge of information, sarcasm intended, may quell immediate fears but will do nothing to reassure a scared public already well aware that a number of Earth warships have not survived the battle. _

_We may be safe today but the question is, will we now be safe tomorrow?" _

_

* * *

_

_"An attack on the Alpha Centauri system has now been confirmed as the reason reinforcements have failed to appear from the colonies. Losses are not yet known but we do have indications that at least one Colonial warship was destroyed by the Goa'uld." _

_

* * *

_

_"Breaking news: An unconfirmed source has reported that Vice-Admiral Peters, one of the founders of the old Royal Space Service and now Commanding Officer, Home Defence and Chief of Naval Operations for the Tau'ri Space Service has been murdered aboard _Thundersdawn _station. _

_More on this as we have it." _


	16. Chapter 16

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Sixteen**

"What the fuck do you mean Peters is dead?"

"Single gunshot wound to the back of the head as she was inspecting the damage to the port arm of the station."

"Christ," Thompson leaned backwards in his seat, the movement sharp and abrupt, "right after she leads the largest battle in our history she gets executed?"

"That's how it appears," Gibbs noted, outwardly calm but a hard glint in the corner of his eyes, "unfortunately we're having a little difficulty tracing exactly who was in that area of the station at the time."

"Doesn't surprise me," he sighed, "that station logs?"

"Corrupted," McGee noted calmly, "I'm not familiar enough with the technology to try recovering it myself and the tech guys on the station are too busy…"

"Worrying about the potential loss of the entire station to worry about such minor matters as evidence and criminal investigations,"

Thompson shot DiNozzo a dark look then grimaced, acknowledging the point, "It's not just the station but the construction slips… slip 8 had _Stingray _ and at least thirty souls still aboard when it broke up in Mars atmosphere."

Gibbs winced, then sighed, "Don't you guys do off-site backups or something?"

"Yes, its still stored at St Athans but given how hard that station was hit I don't know if it survived or not."

"There's a backup at St Athans?" McGee asked, shooting Gibbs a quick glance, "how often is it updated?"

"Real-time… its parts of the station black box arrangements,"

"Would Captain Marks Junior know about this?" Gibbs asked his expression still.

Thompson sighed, "I don't know… it was instituted during the initial construction and has been running as background ever since. If he's read the station manual from end to end, he knows but frankly… Peters was perhaps the only person who knew the entire manual."

"Who would we speak too to get access to this backup?"

This he considered for a moment, then shrugged, "I can authorise read-only access but that wont matter if the servers have been destroyed. I'm not even sure whose in effective command over there right now… this whole situation is fucked right now and frankly, this isn't going to help."

Gibbs waited, his eyes not leaving Thompson as he watched the Admiral consider this, and he hid a smile as the response finally came, "Miss Meyers cant do jack right now with her labs going up in smoke… and she was on the initial design team for _Thundersdawn. _ I'll have her recalled and assigned to you, might take a few hours though, when the balloon went up there were about ten _Paladins _ that scattered out to various fall-back positions and she was on one of them."

"Thank you Admiral," Gibbs noted, "we'll be in touch."

"Do you think the Captain knew about St Athans?" DiNozzo asked as soon as the door was closed, "I mean, he said there was a scheduled backup by courier and that went to Manston."

"He did specifically state no backups were done by transmission due to the added security risk," McGee noted, "and he did say he was doing an inspection himself at the time…"

"Just couldn't remember exactly where," Gibbs finished, nodding grimly, "enough people would have had opportunity in that chaos."

"Motive…" DiNozzo noted, "He doesn't have one."

"That we know of," McGee winched, "last I heard from Ziva our Admirals 'known enemies' list had broken the hundred mark…"

"Ouch…" DiNozzo winced, "but how many of those were Peters enemies and how many were Vice-Admiral Peters?"

"Not much of a distinction," McGee noted, "but she did have a reputation for looking after her people one way or the other."

"And given her position and what she represents… well there are a lot of enemies out there she will never had met or even known about."

Gibbs nodded, an appreciative glint hiding in the corner of his eyes then shot DiNozzo a significant look. His expression blanked for a moment, then:

"Get the list from Ziva, speak to the security people and get their list and see what jumps out. On it boss…"

The look then shot across to McGee, "I will… chase up Miss Meyers arrival, see if I can find out where the servers were stored and how likely they are to have survived and arrange transportation to St Athans."

Nodding appreciatively, Gibbs watched them scurry off.

* * *

"You want facts and figures?" Thompson growled, giving the odious politician the evil eye, "well, right now I don't have many and I'm not going too for hours perhaps even days… but you want figures? I'll give you one.

It's estimated **half **our fighter strength has been destroyed."

This earned a wince from the man opposite, then a sigh, "I understand you're upset…"

"I'm upset?" he clenched his fists together and placed them very firmly on the desk, "Mr Woolsey, not only is one of my oldest friends dead and suspicion for that falling upon a man I approved but… well here's another figure for you. Ball-park estimate puts the military dead alone at ten thousand. Ten thousand of my people… ten thousand families who will be receiving letters, ten thousand people who will need replacing and if a fourth wave appeared now…"

"He may not have been acting alone,"

"Excuse me?" Thompson frowned, "I think you had better explain that."

"You know who I used to work for…"

"I do," he growled, "and frankly…"

"If I wasn't so good at arranging funding, you wouldn't want anything to do with me," he snarked, "I'm more then aware. But I've been getting feelers, feelers that I frankly don't like. Somebody high up in your command may be planning… we may be looking at a case Black."

"Well," the Admiral noted five minutes later when he finally got his voice working again, "you have managed to get my attention. Go on."

"Well… frankly this needs more investigation to confirm and determine who is involved but these have been coming through my old contacts. Some of the types who, even in my NID days I didn't exactly approve off and they're talking about the military having all the funding they need… about more efficient control and distribution of civilian resources... all well and good but the way they're saying it…"

"Any idea who is the headman?"

"No," Woolsey replied edgily, "though I can think of a dozen who would go along with such a plan there's nobody I would really place as a ring leader."

"This is exactly what I don't need right now,"

"I agree," came the swift reply, "we have to have an effective military right now if we are to keep our way of life, our freedom but there is already going to be a crisis of faith with the recent losses. If this sort of thing starts to leak out…"

"I'll have one of my experts speak to you," Thompson noted, "and there is a pitbull of a Navy cop I'll point you at as well but in the meantime I think we had best get back to schedule."

"Not that scheduling means much at the moment," came the dry reply and Thompson grimaced his acknowledgment of the point, "but I do need to know what the immediate priorities are."

"Medical," came the reply after a few moments, "the sooner we can get personnel back into service, the sooner we can get the prizes the Battlegroup bought back with them fully operational."

"Ask for the moon why don't you?" Woolsey sighed, leaning backwards in his seat, his eyes distant, "hospital capacity just isn't what it was before Disclosure… I don't need to remind you how many hospitals and clinics were destroyed by rioters and by enemy action. Few have been replaced yet and with the unsettled civilian population… more incidents requiring hospitalization in general not to mention the fighting… the system is just bulked out… and right now, I would be surprised if we could trace where all the personnel went anyway."

"Woolsey…"

"Oh I know… but your talking about mass organization of military personnel and that not my field. Individuals yes, even small groups but…"

"That's not what I want," Thompson noted, "and I do have people for that. What this entire mess has exposed is a weakness in the system. Most of the member nations can deal with an influx of hundreds of casualties if they're medical operations are fully operational."

"Which none of them are,"

"The capacity to deal with thousands, even tens of thousands of casualties…"

"No longer exists," Woolsey groaned, realizing where this was going, "repairs to _Thundersdawn, _replacement fighters, replacement ships, more defences and you want to add a hospital to that?"

"I know they're not cheap…"

"Oh you have _no _ idea," came the fervent response, "I'll see what I can do about getting your personnel a higher priority… maybe speak to a few non-member nations about hiring some capacity temporarily but… damn."

"We're going with _Washington's," _ Thompson noted, "fuck the committees, I making an executive decision here."

"There are three funded are there not?"

"Yes… but I'm diverting funding from the other classes as well. I thinking at least ten warships permanently assigned to Sol and Alpha Centauri before we start seriously on offensive units again."

Woolsey nodded, "you may be pre-empting there… frankly, sooner or later that will be requested by the governments. How badly was construction hit?"

" _Thundersdawn _ had two bays completely sheared off, all with the destroyers inside. Total loss, a third bay was severally damaged; small cracks and shock damage are being discovered all across the station."

"My God," he wheezed, "please tell me we have some operational shipyards?"

"One slip here, three in Alpha Centauri, four in Edonia."

"We need more capacity…"

"Gaia," Thompson shrugged, "assuming we're given the time to finish her. Frankly we'll be building ships at _Gaia _ before _Thundersdawn _ is fully operational again."

"Well," Woolsey noted, rising from his seat, "I'll see what I can do and I'll remember to expect a visit."

* * *

"This sucks,"

"I know Sarah," Billingsgate replied, "but I'm afraid we must do our best with the hand we've been dealt with."

"You're going to be poaching craft from the training squadrons aren't you?"

"I don't see we have any other choice," Reynolds noted, his eyes not leaving the board in from of them, flickering swiftly across the magnetic pads, each with their hastily scribbled notes and squadron insignia.

"No," she replied sharply, "but fuck! This time last week I was screeching for more craft and now I have to give some up… this is going to hurt training."

"Maybe," Billingsgate noted, "maybe not… right now we have more qualified pilots then we have craft and give the current situation, well, we're going to have to find the fighters somewhere."

"And watch the pilots closely," Reynolds noted, "I've been stuck in a pod for hours myself before… it's scary as it gets and not everyone comes out undamaged. We're going to lose some otherwise healthy pilots simply because they lose it."

"Well, with five birds left the 5th Starfighter Wing are no good at all," Sarah pointed out bluntly, "scrap 'em."

"They're based at Colorado … the 6th is being evacuated to there." Reynolds pointed out.

"That'll bring the 6 th to nearly full strength I suppose," Sarah noted, then glanced at Billingsgate who stood silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay," he sighed, "I suppose we'll need to do the same for the 8th and 3rd as well."

"Keep the 8th ," Sarah noted, "right now they're all we've got left south of the Equator… They'll have to be retagged as fully operational as well, I know nobody in the 8th or 3rd has the experience with the birds we'd like but we don't have enough squadrons to do anything else."

"That'll put the 8th two birds over…" Reynolds noted, "but the 6th is two short."

"Obvious answer…" Sarah shook her head, "its going to take a while for the pilots to adjust but two fully operational squadrons is of more use then four shattered remnants."

"And you don't lose any _F-302' _s from the OTU," Billingsgate pointed out dryly.

"We're not exactly going to be short of _Udajeet _ parts for a while," she replied, "so that's not a bad thing. Likely to see more _F-302's _ rolling off the assembly line for a while then any other type simply because some _Udajeet _ parts can be reused."

" _Udajeet _ Primes?" Reynolds noted.

"Maybe," the Colonel replied.

"Primes?" Sarah asked.

"We've long been provided the Free Jaffa with improved designs of the _Udajeet _ Commodore," Reynolds noted, "the Prime is one that never got of the ground simply because the Colonials aren't willing to release their spin-point drives to them."

"Wouldn't stop us refurbishing _Udajeet _ to that standard to build up our numbers," Billinsgate replied, "but in a fight between an _Udajeet _ Prime and a F-302, well, my money wouldn't be on the refit."

"I see," she shrugged, "I can definitely tell you that Training Command isn't ready for them either."

"There are a trio of prototypes in a warehouse somewhere," the American sighed, nodding at Reynolds as the Wing Commander stepped back form the magnetic boards he had been moving about to reflect the decision "but that doesn't help us immediately. _Lancers _ next."

"I've got ten _Lancer _IS and ten _Lancer _ alphas in 767 squadron right now, given that they're the oldest birds still in flight and their availability is frankly absurb at times, I wouldn't be happy with any of them being used operationally again. I'm not that happy with them being used for training."

"We still need to reinforce the operational squadrons," Billingsgate pointed out.

"Certainly," Sarah replied, "reconfigure the Alphas to Solars and send 'em home. Give you one squadron that almost full strength then pray for the mark III birds to hurry the fuck up."

"Can you do that?" Reynolds asked surprised, "I thought they were completely different designs."

"No," the Colonel shook his head, "she's right. The only difference really is the configuration of the ZPE. Took four days per bird last time we tried it."

"Go with that?"

Billingsgate considered this for a moment then nodded at Reynolds who swiftly began moving the magnetic markers once more.

"Leaves 649," Sarah noted.

"I'm not sure we can do anything with them," Reynolds remarked, "seven birds is understrength and we've got 633 to consider as well."

"633 is still in Edonia," Billingsgate stated at Sarah's questioning look, "we're probably going to have to recall something from there but between them its 27 birds."

"I know squadron strengths," she sighed, her eyes tracking across the display, "the 1st and 2nd starfighter wings are out there as well yes?"

"That's right,"

"Well personally… recall 633 to home defence, leave the _F-302's _ with their greater uptime behind. I'll take the seven birds 649 has remaining to keep training pilots for 633 and scrap the ten frames I have for parts."

Billingsgate blinked at this, "I'm not sure scrapping fighters is such a good idea at this time."

"The parts to keep the fighters airworthy are more valuable then the ten aging frames right now… hell, one of _Lancers _ I'm using is the bloody _prototype. _ Believe me when I say the issue isn't getting them condemned, it's stopping the engineers condemning them."

"So you say," Billingsgate noted, earning a sharp look from the Commodore, "well… at least the new prototypes gave a good showing for themselves."

"I'll say they did," Sarah shook her head, "that leaves the _Strikers _ and the _Vipers… _ and I don't think we can do jack with either. Oh, the Colonials are going to have some hard decisions and that going to slow down our receipt of replacement birds…"

"True," Reynolds eyes flickered across the board "but I agree… no spare _Strikers _ and as for _Vipers… _"

"An entire squadron," Sarah noted quietly, her head bowed.

"Amen," Billingsgate noted quietly as he closed his eyes for a moment in remembrance.


	17. Chapter 17

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Seventeen**

"What the fuck are we going to do with a _Cheops? _"

"Well," Reynolds replied, "I've got _Shunters _ swarming all over her. We're overtaking the orbital degradation… she'll skim a little before we can start shifting her to a higher orbit but we can keep her."

"For what its worth," Carter noted, sending Joan a reproving look for her language, " _Britannica _ did a beautiful number on her hyperdrives, we can't build replacements for a ship of that mass yet."

"Nor can we land her on Alpha Prime and salvage her the way we did with the _Cheops _ the Gatecrashers picked up," the Captain noted, "again, because _Britannica _ was liberal with the ion cannon and her Gauss rifles. That's not a condemnation in any way; her Captain was simply doing what he had to at the time."

Reynolds and Carter exchanged nods at this and satisfied, Joan continued, "now, now I'm not the most senior officer here but the boss had commanded me to figure out what to do with the beast… get a basic framework in place between the three of us then forward it on for approval."

"Potentially it's a massive stockpile of trinium and other refined metals," Reynolds, "we could scrap her for parts."

"Can't land her and have no facility that come seven close to being able to take a ship like that internally," she pointed out.

Carter nodded, "conceivably we could place her next to say, _Minehead _ and strip her in space."

"True…" she nodded, conceding the point, "but although the engines are B.E.R, she's lost a lot of weapons and shields… well, look at the engineers reports. Structurally sound… that to me puts scrapping as last resort."

"The first _Cheops _ was structurally sound for the most part as well," Carter pointed out, her eyes tracking across the papers and pads scattered across the desk, "the only reason she is being scrapped was the biohazard risk."

"Which raises a point… what about the hyperdrives from the first ship?"

"That's a point Reynolds," Joan considered "but that's more your court Sam,"

"Not an option," came the swift reply, and the R&D chief shrugged slightly, "the drives hadn't been maintained for hundreds of years, left exposed to the elements…Not only did they not react that well to being used again but they have already been stripped."

"Which means a combination of melting down and reconditioning for use elsewhere…" Joan sighed, her hands dancing across a tablet pc on the desk, "I think we can write that option off… looks like most of the critical assemblies have already been dealt with."

"Well… if she's not going to be mobile what use will she be?"

"I suppose it does leave scrapping," Carter glanced across at Joan, "we could do with the parts and materials after all."

"No," Joan said, leaning forward in her seat, her gaze distant, "I think Ray has it…"

"Oh?" the Wing-Commander asked frowning.

"We can't make her mobile again, least not interstellar but in-system is doable or at least _in-orbit. _ Structurally intact… replace the two destroyed shields and the various weapons then start an internal refit into an orbital command centre."

Carters jaw dropped for a moment then she smiled, a twinkling appearing in the corner of her eyes, "Well… several of the member and non-member nations have been pushing for more forts in Earths orbit."

"The _Lancelots_ are useful," Reynolds noted, "but the _Cheops _ has launch bays. Having squadrons in orbit will reduce reaction times and the reuse of an existing frame will reduce costs."

"First thing would be to get her back into a stable orbit," Joan noted, glancing across at Reynolds.

"That's just a matter of time now," he replied, "murder on the _Shunters _ drives though."

"Okay…" she nodded then smiled, glancing between the two, "any other ideas or objections?"

There was a pause then the Captain nodded, "then we're recommending refit to orbital fort to Thompson for the _Cheops _ wreckage. Next item on the agenda, increasing the fighter numbers will have to wait until Colonel Billingsgate arrives. So, patrol craft."

"How many under construction?" Reynolds asked.

"Twelve, six of which belong to the Orban Defence Forces. The remaining six are the first batch of the PDF II variants… performance is distinct enough form the other types that mixing them isn't recommended."

"Not worth building any more Type I's," Carter noted, "but it is going to leave the Sol PDF squadron under strength if we don't."

"And then the 5 th Squadron which was destroyed entire," Reynolds noted, "and I don't think we're going to be able to swing funding for an entire squadron of interstellar gunboats at the moment."

"More PDF's?"

"Quite," Reynolds nodded at Joan, "as soon as we get two full squadrons online I'd suggest starting to drop the older Alphas and Solars to reserve… maybe have the Alphas reconfigured to Solars, tow them over and form a single over strength squadron."

"The second option is the one most likely to pass by oversight," Carter noted, "especially at the moment. I'm quite surprised we haven't been order to recall units from abroad."

Joan shook her head, "the forces deployed abroad are understrength as it is. If we have to reduce them… the only saving grace is that the 1st Battlegroups mission went so well, if we didn't have those prizes to try and man then we may well have been forced to recall all the deployed forces…. Including the Edonia picket."

Carter gave a visible wince at this, "I hope nobody has actually been suggesting…"

"Yes," came the dryly worded interruption, "they have… loudly."

"What about the 6th and 7th squadrons?" Reynolds asked after a few moments, "I know they were originally only intended as Aggressor units but…"

"The 7th can be brought back online," Joan noted, "we have enough spare _Al-kesh _ with shields to do that. The 6th will be a problem, we have far fewer of the cloaked _Al-kesh _ and only one member of the squadron is still operational. They do tend to die a lot when they decloak."

"A shielded and cloaked version would be nice in that case," Reynolds noted.

"And what would you be willing to lose to gain the capability?" Joan countered, "Oh we'll search for enough birds to get the squadron reconstituted but Intel has the priority on those. Depending on the final salvage list, we may even do it… I just wouldn't want to bet on it."

"So we lose the 6th as well," Carter shook her head unhappily.

"Either that or have them redesignated to Intel," Joan frowned, "and that's just as likely."

"But our recommendation… maintain surviving hyperdrive equipped squadrons at full-strength and concentrate on building up the PDF's?" Raymond asked.

"It'll have to be," Joan shrugged, sharing a look with Carter, "the Goa'uld are no longer playing games with us… that was over forty ships they hit us with. We need to build up the defences."

"Just so long as we don't end up developing a bunker mentality," the Wing-Commander sighed, "building up the defences is all well and good, so long as the offence is not forgotten."

"True," Carter nodded, "but you can't blame people for being scared."

"No," Raymond replied, "but you can blame them for how they react to being scared."

"True," Joan frowned, "but also a bit harsh. Still, I think its time I went and chased the Colonel up. Twenty minute break people."

* * *

"It was inevitable, and they are unlikely to discover our names, not until we are ready at least."

"I suppose… but still, I didn't expect the investigation to start this fast or for our tool to be discovered this quickly."

"True, but I have already had the good Captain dealt with. The Police will learn nothing from him now."

"I see,"

"Still… the success of the 1st Battlegroup makes things a little harder. There failure would have made the sort of public outbreak we need more in our favour and the Admiral is not one of ours."

"The Captain?"

"The clone of O'Neill? Be serious… but I do have a tool close to them both and in the command chain. The Battlegroup is likely to be with us when the time comes."

"I wonder about Murielle,"

"She is slippery I have to admit."

"You've lost her,"

"After her meeting with this Special Agent Gibbs, yes."

"After her… no. I don't want to know. Her loyalty to Thompson, to the late unlamented Peters and to the Twins is unquestioned… and she is both skilled and trusted. She is a problem, I do not like problems."

"Indeed she is, but dealing with this particular problem will not be so easy."

"Unless you use the right tool,"

"Oh?"

"The tool in this case being Miss Meyers who is providing technical assistance to the team seconded from NCIS. Take a ZPE with you, her little parasite will either need persuading or dealing with. Likely the later."

"I see, perhaps… perhaps any such demise should leave fingers pointing at the old management?"

"That would suit nicely, that would suit nicely indeed."

* * *

"That was not your decision to make," Woolsey frowned.

Admiral Thompson shrugged in reply, " France is a member nation and frankly, whether or not it's my decision is arguable. What isn't arguable is that we need more construction slips online and we need them fast."

"I was under the impression that particular bay had been abandoned due to political instability," he sighed, "but of course, that doesn't matter to you does it."

"It does," Thompson glared "but right now I can't rely on _Thundersdawn _ being brought back online soon… and even if she is declared safe again before long, it'll be months, perhaps years before she's back to fully capacity."

"I know… I know," the ex-NID agent sighed, "its just… I would have appreciated some warning. The appropriations committees are going spare as it is and the extra expense and having to explain it to them…"

"Not as much expense as building a bay from scratch,"

"Maybe not, but even so, it hasn't been used in almost a year now and a lot of the equipment has been disassembled for use in _Gaia. _"

Thompson nodded, "I'm aware of all the problems but I'm even more aware of the limited numbers of ships we have available at the moment, there are three _Eisenhower's _ funded and frankly, I want them on their way."

"I don't blame you, still…"

"I may have some good news for you though," the Admiral smiled tightly, "got a message through the Portuguese embassy… they're in and its looks like we may pick up India as well."

"That is good news," Woolsey sat up, "who are you sending for the negotiations."

He got a very direct look in reply, "I see. Well, in that case I had best prepare. Good Day Admiral."


	18. Chapter 18

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Eighteen**

_"A boast for France today as the nation's sole shipyard for spaceships is brought back online, bringing new jobs to the stricken nation. The reactivation of the facilities, abandoned since Disclosure and capable of producing a single cruiser at a time, are part of a string of moves by the TSS to increase their building capacity in the wake of the recent attack and particularly the heavy damage suffered by _Thundersdawn _station." _

_"An urgent request for funding has been announced by the TSS for the specific task of refitting the captured _Cheops _ hull into an orbital fort. If successful, this will be the largest and most powerful emplacement within the sol system, surpassing even _ Thundersdawn _ station for weapons and shields. _

_The vessel, known to be no longer capable of interstellar flight though this has not yet been confirmed by official sources, may also become the command centre for Sol Systems defences, relieving the aging and battered _Thundersdawn _ of this task. _

_Already over one billion dollars in government and nearly double as much in private funding has been secured for the project in just the ten hours since the request was made, making a new record in private funding for a TSS project." _

_"Jubilation in Seattle today as Boeing confirms receipt of an order for one hundred and twenty fighters of the American _F-302 _ type estimated to be worth just over Fourteen billion dollars. These aircraft, to be delivered within seven years, have been funded by joint contributions from twelve of the TSS nations in reaction to the recent events and it is anticipated that whilst initial deliveries will be of the original design, later craft may be of the newer _F-302b _ design which is currently only in prototype stage." _

_"Pakistan has launched an official challenge to India's entry into the Tau'ri Star Service today, citing fear of advanced off-world technologies being used against them by their traditional enemies. This move, which had sparked an immediate outcry against Pakistan and not just from the existing TSS nations, has resulted in increased tensions along the border of the two nations and even the first shooting incident in almost three years." _

_"A class action suit has been brought against the TSS today for failing to provide sufficient escape pods and shuttles to evacuate the entire personnel aboard its warships. This failing, which has long been a legal requirement wet-navy vessels both civil and military, is believed to have greatly contributed to the loss of life suffered during the recent battle with the Goa'uld. _

_Yet, unlike on our oceans, there are no inflatable escape craft in space; every escape pod has to be a fully enclosed and capable spacecraft, akin in many ways to the command modules of the Apollo era. The massive cost of producing such craft, let alone the mass and space taken is likely to feature heavily in the Tau'ri Star Services defence." _

_"It has been confirmed that the _Dauntless _ memorial, inaugurated prior to Disclosure after the valiant loss of that prototype warship in battle, was damaged during the recent attack upon the base. The damage, reported to be from staff weapons fire and grenades as well as the nearby chemical fire is reported to be severe. _

_The memorial, now the official memorial of the Tau'ri Star Service, is to be repaired and moved to a more public location, the repairs being funded by donations from within the ranks of the TSS." _

_" Pakistan withdrew its objection to India 's entry into the Tau'ri Star Service today under mounting international pressure and reassurances that the use of Alien derived technologies against other nations was grounds for sanctions and even expulsion from the TSS. _

_It is now believed that Pakistan instead intends to join the alliance, perhaps to gain access to the same technologies and 'even the score'. If so, it will become the first Islamic state within the alliance." _

_"The Chinese government has confirmed the intended launch date of the Fu Zhou, the second _Prometheus _ class warship to be produced for the independent People's Liberation Army, Space. The vessel, to be launched in one month's time, is likely to be held within the Sol system for defensive purposes, same as the Jinaghu prior to her crippling at the hands of the Goa'uld. _

_No word as yet has been received on the intended fate of the stricken cruiser, currently abandoned in Earth orbit and not capable of landing back at China 's sole active spaceyard. It is already known that the Chinese are reluctant to allow the vessel to be repaired by the TSS, but if the vessel is to re-enter service, then they may find themselves without any choice." _

_"Military patrols along Britain 's railways today as the recent explosive derailment of a munitions train on the East Coast Mainline is confirmed to have been due to the placement of a Goa'uld staff weapon, set to overload, on the tracks. _

_The crash, which involved three trains in total, only one of which was a passenger service, has completely severed the track just north of Durham and it is estimated that it may take up to five weeks before trains will be able to use the section again." _

_"In the first move of its kind, construction of a warship as yet unnamed of the _Prometheus _ class has been transferred from the stricken _Thundersdawn _to _Ravenbright _ in the Alpha Centauri system. The vessel, which was towed between the two systems by the _Britannica, _is believed to have survived the journey with minimal damage to the incomplete frame." _

_"Unofficial sources are now reporting that the main spars of _Thundersdawn _station, made of high-grade steels prior to gaining access to sufficient trinium may have cracked. If true, this places the complete structural failure of the station as a matter of when, not if, a move which will have major implications for Earth's warship construction capability. _

_The station, now operating under a skeleton crew, is the largest single shipyard available to the Tau'ri star service and has produced or refitted over half of the warships currently in use. Not only this, but its slips still contain seven hulls under construction or refit which would be imperilled by the stations loss." _

_"Surface to orbit weapons… would you want them in your backyard? _

_That's the discussion today after the revelation by the Tau'ri Star Service that they have had for almost four years now the ability to build batteries of Ion cannons capable of destroying enemy warships almost half-way to the moon. _

_Would you feel protected with these goliaths casting their shadows over your backyard or would you worry about how much of a target it would place over your heads? _

_Join us at 6pm EST on your local syndicated channel." _

_"It has now been confirmed that a second hull maybe removed from the incapacitated _Thundersdawn _ station and moved to _Ravenbright _ to be completed. At the moment, that station has no empty slips but it is understood that the _Lancelot A _ defensive satellite is currently close enough to completion that she may be moved and docked externally to the station for the internal fitting out to be completed. _

_If confirmed, such a move will add further fire to the rumours regarding _Thundersdawn _station and her future, particularly the possible lack of one with plans already in place for many of her functions to be moved elsewhere." _

_"Renewed interest in the Def Sat funds continues as public subscriptions from individuals has finally broken the One-hundred million Pound mark. The donations, which are accepted from across the world, not just the member nations, go into a ring fenced fund for Earths defences, at the moment, specifically satellites of the _Lancelot, Lagrange _ and _Firebird _ types. _

_This announcement by the Tau'ri Star Service was coupled with the launch of thirty new _Firebirds, _split between _Gaia _ and Earth defence." _

_"An attempt was made today on the life of Fleet Admiral Thompson, current commanding officer of the Tau'ri Star Service. We don't have much information at the moment but it is understood that the Admiral has been admitted to hospital as a 'precautionary measure' and that the assassin is dead, believed to be at Thompsons own hands. _

_This is the Sixth such attempt on the life of a senior TSS official within the last month, of which the first, against Vice-Admiral Peters, was regretfully successful." _

_"Panic spread across towns around El Toro base today as a technical fault caused the activation of the areas emergency sirens. The sirens, last used during the recent attack by Goa'uld forces upon the base, sounded for two hours before finally being silenced." _

_"A lucky escape today as a trainee pilot in his first solo in a _Dart _ was targeted and engaged by a _Firebird _ satellite. The pilot managed to escape but only after the heat shielding on the craft was damaged, forcing a landing aboard the cruiser _Yuri Gagarin. _The satellite has since been recovered by a _Shunter _ tug and is now undergoing analysis at an unconfirmed location." _

_"An unconfirmed report leaked from the Tau'ri Star Service indicates that the destroyer _Sentry, _a refitted Colonial _Sentinel _ may decommissioned and disassembled. The warship, only recently refitted, was hit hard during the recent fighting with the Goa'uld resulting in heavy damage, some of which is now believed to have been structural. _

_It's this potentially fatal structural damage which is placing a major question mark over the warships future." _

_"Moves to delay the deployment of gunboats to the Orbanians are being blocked by the TSS today. The six warships, already paid for and under construction would become the core of a new Orbanian Navy but given recent losses, a number of politicians are calling for the hulls currently under construction to be retained for home defence and later construction used to fill the gap in the Orbanian ranks. _

_The response from Fleet Admiral Thompson and Major General Davis, the two senior most officers of the Tau'ri Star Service has been unequivocal, once completed, the six craft will go to the Orbanians, whether certain politicians like it or not." _


	19. Chapter 19

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Nineteen**

"He's dead,"

The Admiral frowned, the shook his head dismayed at the agents calm words "how?"

"Car accident," Gibbs tone was dry and ironic, making his opinion of how accidental that accident was very clear, "didn't even get to the freeway after shooting you."

"I believe they're called Motorways this side of the Atlantic ," McGee pointed out and then subsided at his boss's look.

"Too many accidents," Thompson shrugged angrily, wincing at the pain the movement awakened in his right shoulder.

"Accidents my arse," Gibbs replied dryly, a dark glint in his eyes, "there are about ten dead bodies now and none of them were accidents. You came very close to joining them."

"More then ten," Thompson replied.

The detectives eyes widened almost imperceptibly, then narrowed; "Oh?"

"I'm guessing you haven't been watching the accident reports," the Admiral replied, his tone dark and unamused, "an _Airhead _ just happens to drop a volatile load right onto a cruise ship where high levels talks between use and the Free Jaffa were being held?"

"Wait…" McGee started, "I heard about that on the news, but there wasn't any mention of talks…"

"No," DiNozzo commented at the Admirals very direct look, "There wouldn't be would there?"

"No," he replied, "but until the reaction came back from the Free Jaffa I couldn't really say anything. Unfortunately they're pissed and not convinced it was an accident at all and frankly, having read the report, I'm not convinced it was either."

"Anything I should be aware off?"

Thompson nodded at the ex-Marine, "the investigator is very careful to point out that everything that led to that incident could have happened through accident, incompetence or plain being overworked… but it could also equally have happened through malice. We just can't pin down which."

"Wait," McGee frowned, "you said accidents, plural."

"We almost lost a trainee pilot in a _Dart _ to a _Firebird _ whose IFF software had been doctored to allow our own units to be designated as hostile…"

"That's no accident," DiNozzo pointed out, his expression grim.

"We've had to replace the software on an entire batch of thirty new satellites," Thompson added nodding, "that's being reported as an accident, as is the death of the German Chancellor whilst in a _Paladin _ transport."

Gibbs actually took a step back at that then shook his head, "why are you telling me this?"

"I have been persuaded, not that it took much, that this is all related to the same thing," he replied, "I know you've been in contact with Murielle regarding the death of Admiral Peters and Captain Marks Junior, well I'll be putting you in touch with a few other people as well. One of whom is former NID and has been picking up some interesting feelers along some old channels."

Muttering an apology, Dinozzo stepped back as his phone started to ring.

"What is the link?" Gibbs asked quietly.

"A Case Black," the Admiral sighed deeply, "a military coup utilising TSS personnel, equipment, weapons…"

Gibbs was quiet for all of three minutes; his eyes wide and shocked then he responded loudly, "What?"

"It's not something I would allow to happen, neither would any of the senior Command personnel but there are a few we've been keeping an eye on. The problem is, none of them are the sort to actually lead such a thing. They may follow or take advantage, but to actually lead it?"

"I sincerely hope you are wrong," Gibbs replied.

"I may be," Thompson noted, "but my gut says I'm not."

"Gibbs," Dinozzo stated, stepping forward, "we've got a problem. NCIS headquarters just got hit, Directors dead, Miss Meyers been taken…"

"And?" Gibbs asked after a few moments.

Dinozzo took a step back, considered it and took another five just to be safe, "Abby's in intensive care."

* * *

"This is not where I planned on spending my birthday," she noted with a sigh, gazing unhappily around the command centre.

"No," Sarah replied calmly, her own expression dark as she gazed upon her twin, "it would not have been my first choice either… but you're here now."

"This should be Peters place," Joan turned her gaze towards her twin, tears in the corners of her eyes, "I mean, she's always been here and it just…"

"Doesn't seem right that she would just be murdered, executed on her own station?" she shook her head, turning her own gaze across the room, "I agree, but we can't change the past. She built this place, welded the very first section together before the first _Airheads _ were even built and now, she died here. She gave her all for this place."

"And now we may lose it," a gentle shake of the head, "I'm not sure I'm up to this."

"The boss wouldn't have put you here if he'd didn't think you could handle it," Sarah replied, "I didn't think I could handle Training Command when it was dropped in my lap either but I am and I have. You're the Commodore now; it's your job to seal the future of Peters legacy…"

She paused then sighed, "For better or for worse."

"You think we may lose the station?" Joan asked.

"We all think that," came the dry reply, "it'll be your job to decide if that's the right path, or if the old lady still has some life left in her."

"The main issue is the struts' supporting the two arms of the station," Sarah replied softly, "the main body of the station only needs relatively minor repairs but…"

"See," Joan smiled, but there were tears rolling down her cheeks, "you're already thinking about how to save the station, what may be needed, what can be done. Now, you just need to look at the options and make your choice. Thompson will back you up one way or another."

"This is Peters home," Sarah shook her head, "and it seems just so wrong to consider getting rid of her because of that and yet…"

"I know,"

"Have they decided where Peters is to be buried?" she asked calmly of her sister.

"Yes," Joan replied, "in space. The _Invincible _ will take her on her final journey before she is cast into the gulf."

"It should be here!" Sarah replied frustrated, "she worked so high to build this, to keep this lady going, she gave her life for the station… hell, she gave up a life for this station! You know she hadn't dated in what, twelve years because of her work? If the ceremony is going to happen anywhere it should be here."

"I know, but the mass load distribution is way off thanks to the damage to the arms. The station isn't stable enough to be used safely."

Frustrated, she barked out "Then we stabilise her! Take all the hulls out of the starboard arms, tie then up to the port… hell, maybe detach the arms entirely if… that's… what… it takes."

Suddenly contemplative, Sarah began to muse, "The primary issue is the main spars holding the arms to the station. Remove the arms entirely, rebuild the struts in trinium, rebuild the arms around the new struts…"

"Bold," Joan shook her head, "technically challenging and expensive."

"As expensive as building an entirely new station?" came the dry reply, "the main body of this beaut does need some work but its strictly TLC right now, the amount of work we need to do will simply increase the more time we allow an off-axis load to be present. We move swiftly and get the arms off… then the station will be stable enough. We'll still have bay nine, the launch bays and the command facilities to use just sweet fuck all in the way of ship to ship weaponry. A _Lancelot _ or two would be essential to cover the station."

"So," Joan asked with a smile, "you've made your choice then."

"Yes, I suppose I have," she shrugged, "Peters legacy can be saved and we still have need of her. I say we save her."

"Okay," Joan replied, "you write up your proposal and I'll courier it to the boss personally."

She turned and started to walk from the room, but at the threshold of the door, she paused and turned back for a moment, "oh and Sarah?"

"Yes?"

"Welcome to your new home."

Nodding regretful acknowledgement, Sarah stepped backwards and into Peters old chair, dead centre of _Thundersdawn's _ Command Centre.

* * *

"They realize what is happening,"

"Too soon,"

"That they would realize was almost inevitable, but too soon? I think not, we have our momentum now and our allies, they are merely reacting. The initiative is ours."

"Still…"

"You have your doubts? Understandable, it is a grave thing we do but necessary. For Earth to be safe we need to be strong and united; for that to happen the needs of the military must regrettably take precedence for the moment.

When that time is over, then the civilians can start to take their place in the government once more, but they should remember who is responsible for their protection."

"Do they know who we are?"

"No, not yet. I have one of my tools closer to the investigation then you might think and he tells me this 'Special Agent Gibbs' has now been notified that a Case Black is suspected but now he is distracted. His, for all intents and purposes, daughter was injured during Miss Meyer's retrieval. An unexpected bonus I don't doubt."

"When can we move openly?"

"Soon, I have made my moves carefully and more of the Navy is in our pocket then you might suspect. Unfortunately, most of it is the new vessels acquired during the Battlegroups recent raid but those were the easiest vessels to sneak our own people onto."

"I see. But for all that they don't have the stomach to do what is necessary, they are not stupid. They must realize the same, that those are the easiest ships for us to gain control over."

"Maybe, but these are all people that have been cleared. They may look again and closely, but they will find little."

"And if someone talks?"

"Talk to whom, they know not who to trust. If they speak, they do not know if they speak to our people or to theirs. No, nobody will speak."

"Still… If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly"

"Indeed, but I doubt the appropriateness of that quote. Unlike Macbeth, we shall not just seize but hold onto that which we seize as well."

"Macbeth intended to hold as well and we can be undone just as easily. We must be prepared for that as well, just in case."

"You may have no fear of that, I can assure you."


	20. Chapter 20

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty**

_"Word has been received that the new orbital fort currently being designed around the captured _Cheops _ hull will be called the _Admiral Peters _ once completed in honour of the hero of the recent battles against the Goa'uld. _

_The Admiral, a former officer in the Royal Navy and charter member of both the Royal Star Service and the Tau'ri Star Service, was recently murdered whilst inspecting damage sustained to the station when debris from a crippled alien warship crashed into the port arm, destroying two space docks and severally damaging a third. _

_This moves means that the Admiral will continue to protect us for years to come, in spirit and in deed." _

_"An attack on NCIS headquarters in the Washington Naval Yard has left fifteen dead, at least another dozen injured, several severely and a further twenty unaccounted for. The attack, which happened late in the evening, seems to have been aimed at kidnapping an as yet unidentified individual from the building. _

_No word has yet been received on who is responsible and why and there has been no comment on the rumours this attack was linked to the ongoing attacks against senior personnel of the TSS." _

_"A sigh of relief is heard today as twenty-three Jaffa warriors, apparently of the Goa'uld Anubis are reported to have been rounded up. A routine patrol by an F-16 fighter jet apparently spotted a transport ship start to lift off the ground and attacked, dropping several bombs onto the craft before it could raise itself clear of the tree line. _

_With the landing site known, it wasn't long before ground troops were helicoptered into the area and the alien warriors captured. No word yet as to whether they were being picked up or set down by the transport craft." _

_"A referendum to join the TSS failed by just 1% of the vote in Thailand today. This narrow margin means under the terms of the referendum, the vote can not be accepted and the Thai people must go to the polls once more as less then a 5% difference is officially classed as a tie. _

_This is the second hung referendum now; one can only wonder whether there will be a third." _

_"Production was halted at Cape Canaveral earlier today as Federal Agents of the FBI raided the base and specifically the satellite production lines. The facility built since the historic base was handed over to the TSS was shut down for almost ten hours before the production line was allowed to reopen. _

_All requests for information regarding the raid and its purpose have so far been met with a blunt 'no comment'. _

_We'll bring you more on this as we have it." _

_"A sod-breaking ceremony was held today in Wichita , Kansas as the Boeing led Spaceliner consortium begins construction work on its own shipyards. The facility, which is it believed will initially be capable of producing just two ships at a time, arrived in Wichita after several months of negotiations, not to mention accusations of bribery and two consortium members walking out and joining the European led Spaceways Consortium. _

_The Kansas State Governor is already under investigation as rumours continue to persist over exactly how the consortium was persuaded to base themselves in his state." _

_" Cheyenne Mountain Complex was declared operational again after a massive rebuilding project forced by the events of Disclosure. The mountain, which had retaken over gate operations almost two months ago now, serves as headquarters for operations through the Stargate as well as acting as an enclosed defensive base and research facility. _

_Originally, the facility just included several levels below the old NORAD base but now includes the entire mountain complex as well as sections of all five nearby US Army and Airforce bases." _

_"A squadron axed, 44 Squadron, funded as part of the build up to _Gaia _ and intended to be equipped with _Paladins _ has been taken off the books, its funding diverted to other projects and rumours continue to circulate that this is not going to be the only support squadron to face the axe. _

_It is unknown as yet how this loss of valuable cargo and transport capability will affect the shipyard once it becomes operational." _

_"The construction of a third mining facility in space has been halted today as the Tau'ri Star Service struggles to find funding to replace fighters and warships lost during the recent attacks. The base, originally funded by Spain , is currently only a partially complete frame but significant sections of the internal equipment are already been manufactured Earthside. _

_It is not known as yet how the abrupt cancellation will effect jobs at the specialist companies involved, but at statement has already been released confirming the intent of the TSS to restart construction once the current crisis has passed." _

_"China, currently the only independent spacefaring nation, has today announced its intention to expand its space industries with the addition of a second slip to its current shipyard effectively doubling its ability to produce and maintain its warships. Currently, China is capable of producing warships of the _Prometheus _ class only and these lack many of the later advancements found aboard Tau'ri Star Service vessels. _

_A further announcement is expected later today regarding rumours that the Chinese government also intends to convert some of its aircraft production capability to allow production of fighters. It is not known as yet which fighter designs they actually have access too though it has been confirmed that several attempts have been made to gain more access then treaty negotiations have allowed them. _

_Already, fifteen Chinese agents reside in British prisons alone; the number in American facilities has not been disclosed but is believed to be significantly higher." _

_"A joint statement was released today by eight Arab nations, all of whom were involved in the Six Day War of 1967 confirming that any attempt by Israel to join the Tau'ri Star Service would be seen as an act of war against their nations and that they would respond accordingly. _

_A military build-up is already underway in the area and many political analysts are already saying it's merely a matter of time before fighting breaks out in the region once more. _

_This comes as rumours emerge that Egypt is attempting to form a coalition in the area of Arab nation's intent of forming their own space military force." _

_"With the advent of civilian spacecraft now confirmed and the disastrous loss of lives during the recent battles, part of which could be avoided if the Tau'ri Star Service had a greater Search and Rescue capability, a call has been made in the Senate today for a separate civilian spaceforce to be funded. _

_Perhaps using primarily _Paladins _ at first, this force if funded would effectively act as a Coastguard service for space, taking over the main responsibility for Search and Rescue duties, the evacuation of injured persons in the Alpha Centauri system which as yet lacks a major hospital though its trauma facilities are reported to be exceptional. Even customs duties may be handed over to the new force. _

_It would not be the first use of _Paladins _ by civilians as already four of these craft have been handed over to universities for use in scientific and exploration works. _

_The response to the proposed new force has so far been favourable and not just in the US , but it will be funding that decides whether this idea becomes fact or just another footnote in the history books." _

_"Another squadron lost to the axe. 50 Squadron, funded as one of the support squadrons for _Gaia _ station has been cancelled in another in along stream of losses designed to push more funding towards replacing lost units and building up Earths defences. It is now hoped that a single squadron of tugs will be sufficient for the immediate needs of the station when its starts to go online." _

_"A boast for RAAF Darwin today as the Tau'ri Star Service confirms its intention to form a new training squadron at the base. The squadron, one of several requested prior to the recent attacks, is intended to reduce the load on Training Command which has recently received much criticism recently for the quality of its graduates. _

_The Squadron, designated as Number 42 Squadron will be primarily responsible for training pilots in navigating hyperspace but will have a secondary role of home defence and will be equipped with _Paladins _." _

_"With the destruction of the _Lagrange _ arrays Earth lost the prime components of its Early Warning System and now must rely solely on patrols by naval vessels and support craft of the fleet to give any warning of an upcoming attack. _

_Already, this critical lack has received much attention in the media and the population at large wants to know what the TSS is going to do about this. To the untrained eye, there appear to be two main options, rebuild the arrays or invest in a spaceborne equivalent to the AWACS. _

_We'll have Wing-Commander Reynolds, the pilot of the very first _Airhead _ to lift construction materials for _Thundersdawn _ and now commander of the fleet of support craft in the chair later today and this is just one of the many questions we'll be putting to him. _

_Join us this evening at 8pm." _


	21. Chapter 21

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-One**

"He does not suspect?"

"No, he does not."

"It would go badly for you if that were to change."

"He is a fool; it is unlikely that he will realize he is being used. Anubis did not realize he was being used when he launched the attack here did he not? If I can command Anubis, a mere Tau'ri with delusions of adequacy is not an issue."

"Perhaps, but do not think you can control me as easily as you do your pawns."

"I know where my loyalty lies and that is with you my lord."

"We shall see."

"And soon. _Thundersdawn _ is already vulnerable; we shall be able to strip much useful technology from her when the time comes. We wont be able to take the entirety of their fleet unfortunately, some of it is not here and a few ships we have no tools aboard, but I have no doubt we'll take some."

"The extra hulls not to mention the technologies are our purpose here."

"Their shields! Even Anubis eyes them greedily."

"His shields are still stronger."

"But the Tau'ri shields combine Asgard, Tollan, Tau'ri, Goa'uld and even some ascended thinking! If we can obtain samples…"

"That is your goal. I would advise against failure."

"Of course my Lord."

* * *

"Do we know yet what the Chinese intend?"

"No," Kalinda replied shaking her head, "I've taken a look at the satellite photos myself but I'm no expert and all the experts can say is 'the Chinese are performing a major refit of their prime Aircraft plants' and frankly, you don't need to be an expert to be able to tell _that _ from the photos."

"Let's assume then that the rumours about refitting to starfighter production are true then," Billingsgate noted, "what are they capable of producing?"

"That's the million dollar question. Unfortunately, it boils down to the Intel people not being able to confirm which designs they have managed to compromise. Doesn't help that they're producing some of the core components for many of our small craft… frankly, I would say _Strikers _ probably are the least likely option. _Lancers… _ possible but they know there are issues so unless they've got a hold of the mark 3 design that's highly unlikely. _Vipers… _ doubtful, frankly, if they're going to go with an existing design, I would lean towards the _F-302's. _"

"That," Billingsgate noted, sliding a file across the desk, "is Intel's thinking too. There is just one joker in the deck…"

"They don't have to go with an existing design," she concluded, "still not seeing why you coming to me with this though."

"That file contains a list of every technology we know the Chinese have either legally or not and a list of everything else ordered by the apparent likelihood of the Chinese having obtained it as well. You might be behind on the _Vipers _ and _F-302's _ but you know most of the other craft like you designed them yourself."

He grinned at the eye-roll this earned him from Kalinda and continued, "your mission, should you choose to accept it, is wade through all that bumph and give me a purely technical analysis of what the Chinese are likely to be able to do and not do as far as starfighters are concerned."

"Oh," came the considered reply, "great."

* * *

"Another fine mess…"

"I know," Carter frowned, "and this isn't exactly my area of expertise nowadays either, though I seem to be caught up in these meeting a lot."

Davis shrugged, "no exactly my area of expertise either, but as Thompson would say, needs must when the devil drives."

"Still, its four _Lancelot's _ and three locations that need the defences."

" _Gaia, Thundersdawn _and _Edonia. _ Can we assume one each and then argue over the fourth?"

"No," Carter shook her head, " _Edonia _station isn't quite _Ravenbright _ but she's well defended… admittedly she's on a prime target but frankly, the station is more of a tripwire anyway. Against a determined assault there's no way we could hold that location for long. I say we take the Mark IIIB that's under construction at _Edonia _and bring her home."

"The local CO wont like that," Davis considered this, "thinking two each for _Gaia _ and _Thundersdawn? _"

"Yes," she sighed, "the platform at _Ravenbright _ is almost complete. That one we drop right over _Gaia. _ Then its what, another two to three weeks before the next platform is completed which is the IIIC in orbit. Ship her to _Thundersdawn, _leave the IIIA in orbit for _Gaia _ and when we can, drop the IIIB over at _Thundersdawn. _"

"Two A's for _Gaia _ and the B and C prototypes for _Thundersdawn… _ that's a bit of a throw discrepancy."

Carter shrugged slightly, "maybe… but _Gaia _ already has the seed of a Mark II array not to mention the _Admiral Peters _ once work commences. _Thundersdawn _ will have to rely almost entirely on whatever two platforms we assign until work starts to near completion or more platforms become available. That may take years."

"And we're assuming the twin's rather daredevil scheme gets the go-ahead." Davis noted.

"Perhaps, but if it doesn't then it is even easier. Leave _Edonia _alone, grab the IIIA at _Ravenbright _ for _Gaia _."

"Maybe," he sighed, "I'm not sure the effort to preserve _Thundersdawn _is the best idea myself."

"Maybe, maybe not," shaking her head, she leaned over the table, "in the long term, it'll cost more to keep the station simply because of her age. She's been heavily used for over a decade now and that's a good life for a satellite. Her construction may have been a deliberate snub and perhaps even a Glory-chase by the English but the lessons learnt in her construction and her 'life' has been invaluable. Even the analysis of the damage is going to tell us a lot that will help us to build stronger, more survivable, longer lasting easier to maintain stations… so yes, she's certainly been valuable.

As far as scrapping her goes, there are damn good an argument for that… but for me the overriding argument is cost and time. In the short-term it'll cost less to refit the station properly then to scrap her and start afresh. That means nine slips that can be brought back into use a lot quicker.

We may regret it in the long-run but have to survive long enough for that to matter first. We _need those slips. _"

Davis nodded reluctantly, "I'll trust your judgment on that. I could certainly see your point about the construction space… but I also don't think you've heard the latest from Joan."

Carter groaned, a wry grin crossing her face, "Oh?"

"Nothing bad…" he responded reassuringly, "apparently she's trying to plan the refit so that bay nine on the base of the station can be brought back into use as quickly as possible once the station arms and the other eight slips have been removed."

Leaning back from the table, she gave a low whistle, "that's the largest bay isn't it?"

"Only one on the station capable of handling _Britannica's _" came the swift confirmation, "with the mess the rest of the station will be in, the construction schedules will probably be extended but a slip is a slip."

"I see," Carter grinned, "plus it's an extra argument for keeping the station with the bureaucracy…"

Davis chuckled then sighed sombrely, "Not that I can blame Joan that much. She's looked up to Peters as long as I've known her, to want to save the legacy of… well, for all practical purposes, her mother, that I can understand."

"So long as she is considering all the implications," she cautioned then shook her head, "but we have gone off the track. The deployment will have to depend on the final decision on _Thundersdawn _ but what do you think?"

"I think we need to look again at the option if _Thundersdawn _ is scrapped. That's going to take quite some time and involve a lot of personnel and small craft. I'm not that happy with only leaving a small array of _Tridents _ and _Firebirds _ for defence."

Wincing, Carter shook her head, "they won't even have that. _Thundersdawn _ is the control for those platforms. No control station…"

"That's another reason to drop a _Lancelot _ there then,"

"To act as the control centre for the smaller defences," she concluded, "Maybe, but it might be best to make it an IIIA variant. I don't see that a deconstruction project would need the weight of an ion cannon or Goa'uld capital ship weaponry."

"That would make an IIIA and an IIIC for _Gaia _ with the IIIB prototype being left at _Edonia, _" Davis noted, "I'm sure that a lot of our Captains will be breathing a sigh of relief at not having to tow that kind of mass all the way from the nebula."

"Right, it would have to be staged anyway to prevent engines overloads. It may take up to a month to deliver the platform."

"I think firmer figures on what it would take would be a good idea," he noted, "if _Thundersdawn _ get's green lighted we may find ourselves having to do exactly that."

"It'll mean _Ha'taks, _" Carter noted, "only craft we have with serious towing capability. I'll look into it certainly."

"The next question is where do we put the next batch of _Firebirds? _"

"How many?"

"Twenty, all IIB's so _Cobra _ missiles instead of _Sidewinders _ and _Sparrows. _"

Grimacing, she let her hands dance over the touch screen built into the desk, "it would be tempting to say drop them in Earth orbit. I'm sure the general public wouldn't mind that but _Coalmine _ has six of the oldest birds in service and they're having reliability issues… but four of the top five least reliable are at _Minehead. _"

"You're suggesting pulling all the older birds?"

"We would have had to do that anyway," she shrugged, "but judging by the deployment notes I can see here, it looks like Peters was trying to do a 50/50 split on the _Firebirds. _ Half the production to replace older _Tridents, _half to extending existing arrays."

"Fine," Davis noted, "strip the ten worst _Tridents _ and the remaining ten get dropped on the Earth and _Gaia _ arrays."

Carter nodded agreement then frowned, "about the _Lancelot _ at _Edonia. _ There may be an easier way to move the platform."

"Oh?"

" _Merchant _ with the cargo pods stripped."

"That may work," Davis nodded, sending her an appreciative nod, "will the platform fit though?"

"Maybe," she nodded, "probably. I'll have to double check the dimensions to make sure though. What's the progress on the _Lagrange _ platforms?"

"Soon as the new _Firebirds _ are out, work will start on five new _Lagrange B _'s,"

"B's?"

"RSS was already working on an improved design for the arrays when the amalgamation came," he shrugged, "Thompson ordered them dusted off, tweaked and put into gear. I haven't had an opportunity to check out the full details yet but apparently they're shielded and have pulse lasers. Nothing heavier though."

Carter considered this for moment, "at least it will stop the one-hot kills."

"That I suspect was the point," came the swift reply, "we've lost more of the _Lagrange _ arrays then other type of platform and they're a prime part of the early warning network. Couldn't keep that up indefinitely."

"No, certainly not but the downside of course is that the newer designs do take a lot longer…"

His head whipped around in shock as gunfire sounded loudly outside the conference room, his hand darting towards the pistol holstered at his side.


	22. Chapter 22

**13: The Line**  
**by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-Two**

" _…you can't do this you traitorous son of a bitch!" _

_"I'm not the traitor here Major. It's the pathetic fools on Earth who demand our service our protection then deliberately deny us the tools we need to do their will, who malicious and callously send us to our deaths. No, we will do as they will, we will keep them 'safe' but it will be on our terms. Now, you **will **__give me your command codes or I will be far less kind to you then I was the Captain." _

_"I will give you nothing…" _

_**BANG **_

_"Your foolishness just lost you the ability to procreate; the next one will cost you a kneecap. Give me your command…" _

_"Sir, shipwide is on!" _

_"What! Shut that down now!" _

"What the fuck?" Corporal Tains whispered aghast as the intercom finally cut off.

"Shit, we have got…"

"To do nothing,"

He glanced at the Major surprised, "huh?"

"We can't carry out the mission under our current restrictions so the good Lieutenant and hundreds of others about the fleet are about to ensure we get the resources we need. Relax; it'll be over soon enough."

Tains considered this for a moment, then gazed his commander firmly in the eye, "you're right, for you it will be."

Grimly; he slid his pistol back into its holster and then stripped the rank and uniform insignia from the body, barely waiting for it to hit the ground. That done, he then turned to face his fellow Marines, "I believe we have a ship to retake."

Sharing surprised appreciative and respectful looks, his squad began to check their weapons and Tains hid a tear as Private Sanders began to whisper urgently to him.

"Shit, that was your brother!"

"No," he replied slowly, "it wasn't."

* * *

"With that stick up the arse Trotters in charge, I don't think the 32nd is going to join us,"

"Colonel, he's only a Squadron Leader, you could order…"

"No, I don't think ordering is going to do much… but those damned _Paladin _ bombers of theirs could do nasty things to our formations. We need to destroy them."

"No, we need to destroy the crews… we'll still need the birds."

"How?"

"Crews are still in their briefing rooms trying to get abreast of what's happening. Tiger and Wildman are up on a training flight… heading towards the bombing ranges."

"…I see. I have concerns about Wildman though."

"Flip the truth and he'll do the job. By the time he realizes what he's done it'll be too late for the fucker, he'll have no choice but to continue to support the Admiral."

"I suppose; worst case our birds are kept hot, we could scramble and strafe the birds on the ground before they can react."

"I'll have some pilots standing by in case. Still, that should be avoided, we need those birds."

"Perhaps; it's worth a try anyway, okay, get on the radio…"

* * *

"Commodore…"

Grimacing, Joan turned her face towards the Ensign racing towards her, her expression puzzled as she stepped down form the _Paladins _ side door, "Yes?"

" _Invincible _ just popper her emergency beacon. We're getting reports of a mutiny aboard,"

She blinked, her eyes going dark as she considered tearing a strip off the Ensign for delivering such a ludicrous report without checking it first but then she caught the look in his eyes and knew it wasn't a joke.

"The _fuck?_" was the first thing to leave her mouth, under the circumstances she thought that was pretty mild. With a grimace, she reached into the door of the spacecraft and grabbed the helmet of her pressure suit and with a resigned wave, signalled the pilot to shut the craft down.

For some strange reason, she didn't think she was going to be making that planning meeting after all.

* * *

"What in the Devil's name is _Pheonix _ playing at?"

"I have no idea sir," came the befuddled reply, "sir… it's the same message again. Admiral Thompson has been arrested for treason and we're to stand down at Area 51 pending investigation of our status."

"That's not our base and I don't like the tone of that at all! Which idiot gave that order?" Davids replied irritated.

"Apparently its Admiral Hirsch sir."

"That kraut bastard, what the hell does he think he's playing at?"

The response was a disbelieving shrug, and wearily rubbing his forehead, the gunboats Captain shook his head distressed, "okay, get on the horn to whoever the hell the duty System Defence officer is at the moment and try and get them to confirm those orders. Also, try and get confirmation of Admiral Thompson's status."

He paused a moment, "and lets go to General Quarters as well, just in case."

"Aye sir," came the rather subdued response.

_"Incoming Fire!" _

"Shields! _Shields! _" Davids barked, diving for his seat, and swiftly began buckling in but found himself having to hold his seat grimly as the ship rocked then pitched violently before he could firmly strap himself in.

"Whose firing at us?"

_" Phoenix _ and _Griffin _ sir! _Unicorn _is… is just gone, she didn't have her shields up."

"Receiving a _Thunderbolt _transmission in the clear from El Toro , just two words: Case Black!"

"My God," he sighed, not noticing how strangled his voice sounded, but shook himself back to awareness seconds later as the ship heaved violently once more, _"evasive! Weapons Free! Stand by to engage traitor units! _"

The bridge went utterly still and silent for a moment and with a grimace, he continued, quietly, sympathetically and unrelentingly, "a Case Black is a military coup being attempted form within the ranks of the TSS using our equipment and personnel."

"Jesus!"

He didn't know where that softly voiced curse came from, nor did he partiularyly care. It seemed warranted under the circumstances, "I am holding you to your oaths and to your duty now. This uniform I wear in the name of service, not in the name of control and I will not allow Earth to fall under a dictatorship whilst I have breathe left in my body to do something about it!"

He gazed around the bridge once and then nodded satisfied, "get me a channel to those bastards."

He waited then had the nod;

"Traitor units, this is Flying Officer Davids, Captain of the Tau'ri Star Service warship _Chimera. _Under the authority invested in me by the duly appointed governments of Earth in the form of the Tau'ri Star Service Treaties of Formation and Allegiance, I am ordering you to stand down and prepare to be taken into custody. Failure to comply will be met with lethal force."

He made a throat cutting gesture and then smiled darkly, "I think that should get our message across. Now, let's get ready to kill the fuckers 'cos if they're going to comply then I'm a monkey's uncle!"

* * *

Grimly, Carter popped her head around the corner, arms flicking upwards, two rounds fired with swift deadly precision before ducking back into cover again, wincing as a hail of bullets rained into the concrete just inches away.

The noise didn't hide the sound of a collapsing body, nor the curses or scraping as the unknown was dragged into cover. A part of her wanted the fucker to be dead, a larger part just didn't care so long as he, she whatever was firmly out of the fight.

Frankly, she was surprised they hadn't used grenades, if she had some she certainly would have. Probably wanted her or the General alive…

Well, she took a moment to gaze with pained eyes back into the office; they certainly wouldn't be getting Davis alive. Now, she just had to hope her reinforcements arrived before both her clips ran out…

* * *

"Guys got balls," came the grudging commendation, "still, two on one must suck so lets let Davids know he's not on his own shall we? Action Stations! Prepare to engage _Griffin _ and _Phoenix __! _"

"Wait… hyperspace portals opening… 6 th Starfighter Wing, reinforced with _Paladin _Gunboats… moving to engage _Chimera. _"

"I see," with a regretful sigh, he turned his head towards his XO, "launch fighters and signal _Chimera, _suggest they fall back to us, _ Britannica _will assist."

"No," came the reply, "_Britannica _ will engage _Chimera. _"

"I see," removing his cap, he rubbed his balding forehead, eyes warily following the overly large pistol that was now very much in his face "shall I assume that you have disappointed me once more Colonel?"

"I am not the disappointment here, goodbye Captain."

A shot sounded and he flinched then blinked warily as he realized that he was still alive and that the red in his eyes wasn't his own blood. Shaking slightly, he shot the Marine at the door a grateful smile and sat swiftly down in his seat.

"Weapons free… lets deal with those _Paladin _gunboats first shall we? Nasty fuckers…"


	23. Chapter 23

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-Three**

_"Panic in Orange County today as massed fire is heard from within the boundaries of TSS El Toro once more. The base, which has been repeatedly attacked since Disclosure, has been the repeated site of fighting not just between the multinational military force and aliens but with hostile Earth groups as well. _

_But this is a fight of a different order, as those telephoto shots show, the Tau'ri Star Service now appears to be fighting itself, brother Marine against brother Marine, and in the skies above, fighter against fighter. So far we have seen at least 3 _Lancers _ being destroyed by other _Lancer _ starfighters. _

_Has an alien influence taken command of Earths military forces? Has some fatal miscommunication caused both sides to think the other has been corrupted? Is this the prelude to a coup? _

_No-one knows, but it will certainly slow down the rebuilding of Earths defences and that can only be bad thing." _

_"The President was meeting schoolchildren in Chicago earlier today when he was bodily carried out of the building by the Secret Service. No word has yet been given to us as to why he had to leave in so precipitous a manner, but it has been confirmed that he has now departed Midway Airport, not in Air Force One which was present but in a _Paladin _space transport." _

_"We can now confirm that fighting has broken out around the Reichstag, the seat of the German government in Berlin . I have tried to get to speak to some of the troops involved but we have… we have actually been fired upon by troops of the Heer, the German Army… we have also received medical assistance from the same! _

_No one truly seems to know what is going on, not even the soldiers themselves but whatever is happening, the implications of this can only be truly frightening." _

_"This is an official broadcast of the government of Luxembourg . All ministers and officials should assume case Orange . This is an official broadcast of the government of Luxembourg . All ministers and officials should assume case Orange ." _

_"Extraordinary scenes at Cape Canaveral today as, behind us, what appears to be units of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Teams, supported by SWAT are engaged in a major running gun battle with the massive bases Army guards. _

_Already, we know that at least thirty have died, one of whom was fellow reporter Cassidy Newton and her CNN news crew who seem to have been deliberately targeted by the Army. You may still see their bodies lying just fifteen feet away. _

_I'm not sure what is happening here… but what I do know is that the FBI were here to arrest General Hague, formerly of the US Army, on charges of treason, specifically, attempting to subvert the lawful government. _

_It… is with great regret that I must announce that this means a military coup appears to be in progress on American soil… and not just on American soil. The news from Europe and from space is looking equally grim…" _

_"We can now confirm the capture of fourteen fighters of the renegade 6th Starfighter Wing by what we believe to be Earth-loyal forces. The pilots landed, believing the base to still recognising them as friendly's to rearm and refuel only to find themselves ambushed from Stargate Teams deployed from Cheyenne Mountain complex who had covertly retaken the base. _

_Six of the fighters still managed to escape and remain at large. The status of the _Paladin Gunboats _captured by the rebels is unknown at this time." _

_"Reports that the _Beliskner _ warships provided by the Asgard to assist with radioactive cleanup of the Exeter Exclusion Zone are unarmed have been proved false today. Twelve minutes ago we witnessed the reportedly backward and outdated vessels by Asgard standards shoot a Manston based warship, we believe to be a _Blastboat _ class of the 1st Squadron out of the sky at a range of twelve miles. _

_The vessel had it shields deployed at the time, but it didn't appear to matter much, the five remaining vessels of the squadron quickly veering off in the wake of the compatriots death… now, whilst we don't know exactly which craft was shot down, it did appear to be being chased by the remainder of the squadron and we do know that Captain Harris has made his opinion about the current events quite and indeed, bluntly clear. _

_There will be no mercy from the 1st Patrol Squadron for any traitors." _

_"This is Brian Palmer once again reporting from _Thundersdawn _station. I have reported many battles from this chair and God and funding permitting, I will report many more. _

_But it is my sincerest hope that I never have to report an engagement like the one I have just witnessed ever again. _

_The Cruiser _Gettyburg _, built by the United States and apart of the 1 st Battlegroup was just destroyed by _Atlantis _ and _Merchant, _worryingly; the four remaining vessels of the battlegroup played no part in the engagement and have indeed now fled the system. _

_It is hoped that they are simply reporting to _Ravenbright _ but this is uncertain. The Colonial vessel _Watcher _ which was apart of the taskforce fled the system almost ten hours ago now, its status is also uncertain." _

_"Almost two hundred soldiers lie dead behind me, their bodies cooling in the fading light. These are not traitors; these are Earth loyal forces moving to retake Area 51, killed by a mob of frightened civilians. _

_You can't see any civilian bodies behind me, you won't either. These Soldiers are reported to have refused to fire kill shots right to the end; the few civilian injuries have already been taken into custody and to hospital." _

_"We are receiving reports that Earth personnel on Freedom, both civilian and military are being taken into custody by the Colonial Government-in-Exile. This is likely a response to what may well be a coup attempt on the part of the military within the Sol System but this has yet to be officially confirmed. _

_What is known is that the Colonial Military is now on full alert and has declared an exclusion zone around their planet and have stated their intent to destroy any Earth vessel which approaches unauthorised." _

_"Fleet Admiral Thompson has been reported as missing today with rumours abounding that that not only has he been forced to flee Manston where he has made his home for the last three years, but that his personnel _Paladin _ transport has been shot down. _

_With Major General Davis dead; General O'Neill at _Ravenbright, _and Carter injured, this leaves no firm answer as to who is commanding the Tau'ri Star Service at this moment in time. _

_Already not less then six separate officers have tried to claim command of the service in the emergency, including Flottillenadmiral Hirsh, the German Liaison officer, Commodore Joan Williams who now commands the damaged _Thundersdawn _station and Admiral Gregori who is currently based aboard the Battlestar _Atlantis.

_It will be interesting to see who commands the loyalty of Earths forces in the upcoming days and what exactly their intentions for Earth are." _

_"An official statement of condemnation has been released by Congress today deploring the fighting that has erupted across the world between TSS forces… it would be easy to say between Earth loyal and disloyal forces but the truth is, no-body really knows know who is in favour of a Free earth and who is determined to control it. _

_Its doubtful even that many of the units engaged in the fighting actually know who they are working for, just that in the chaos and madness, they have clear firm orders and perhaps those orders are coming from somebody who claims to support democracy. _

_When the chaos subsides and brother units stops fighting brother unit, I expect in the final reckoning, many deaths that should not have happened. Not just the madness of infighting but the desperate stupidity of Blue on Blue. _

_Of desperate units, not sure of the others intentions, fighting each other when in truth they were on the same side, this kind of chaos can only result in hundreds, perhaps thousands of unnecessary deaths, loss of faith in our armed forces and a weakening of Earths defences against external threats. _

_So, I offer you this prayer, the God guides the righteous to swift victory, that the perpetrators of this travesty are swiftly granted unto his mercy and that the innocent fall to no harm. _

_Above all else, that our Democracy and Freedoms are preserved. _

_Amen." _

_"This is General George Hammond, formerly of Stargate Command. I am assuming command of all Tau'ri Star Service units, officers, bases… every man jack and child at this time. All navy, support and fighter units are to report to Commodore Joan Williams at _Thundersdawn _immediately. All ground units report to me at Cheyenne mountain complex immediately. _

_All units are herby ordered to co-ordinate and resist coup forces but you are reminded of the rules of engagement. Do not engage unless you are absolutely certain the unit in front is an enemy or you see a clear threat to yourselves or civilians. Take prisoners where possible, remember there has to have been a central controlling figure behind this insanity and if we are to deal with them appropriately, we need proof. _

_Above all else, remember your duties and your oaths. _

_God speed." _


	24. Chapter 24

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-Four**

_"Once again I am broadcasting to you from the embattled Manston station, a famous 2nd World war fighter base, later Civilian airport and nowadays the Tau'ri prime fighter base in Europe . _

_This is a prime target for any wishing to do Earth harm and once again, the station has brought the brunt of that. Damaged by rioters in the wake of Disclosure, by ground attack by Jaffa and Cylons since then, the odd covert raid by parties unknown and now by Earth's own forces. _

_The property values in the area have already dropped; many more civilians are considering leaving the area and the local fire services are swamped. _

_Once more valuable fighters and equipment are burning on the concrete behind me; these time the increasingly rare _Lancers _ of the Reavers, 194 Squadron of the TSS. _

_The cost of the damage here, estimated to be in the high millions and quite possible breaking the billion mark. It will certainly be some time before this once bustling facility is considered fully operational once more." _

_"…investigations continue despite the chaos, headed by the American NCIS Federal Agency who, with the kidnapping of Kalinda Mathews and the bombing of their headquarters in the Washington Naval Yard by the enemy, hold a very personal stake in finding out exactly who is the responsible for the ongoing madness. _

_No statements have been released on the progress of the investigation, the Special Agent in Charge, a former Marine by the name of Gibbs is keeping this very close to his vest but it is known that NCIS has been drawing upon the assistance of Law Enforcement Agencies across the globe and perhaps even not of this Earth as rumours abound of off-world technical assistance in the investigation. _

_We'll bring you more as we have it." _

_"Reports from observers on the ground indicate that _Overseer, _the only TSS warship currently deployed to the Alpha Centauri system may have arrived back in the sol system. Observers in Australia claim to have been able to read the ships name off the nose of the ship as it settled into orbit over the continent. _

_If true, this means that the Colonial government now controls every operational warship in the system, barring the relatively minor gunboats of the Alpha PDF squadron." _

_"Fighting moved back into the perimeter of Area 51 today as army units move to retake the base, a pivotal one in the Earthforces Research and Development division, already the little news we are receiving is grim. Fighting is rare, sporadic and the Army is almost at the first entrance to the main underground part of the complex despite having to cover miles of open flat ground and clear numerous surface buildings. _

_From what we can gather, the troops who seized this base don't appear to have held any intent of holding it, instead their goal was simple. _

_Murder. _

_The base is reported to be a charnel house of dead researchers and support staff, there appears to have been quarter asked… but none given. I don't have exact details, we haven't as yet been allowed into the perimeter but from the information available to us, it appears possible that the entire personnel of the base have been wiped out, a crippling blow to Earths defences. _

_Not to mention, a curious move given the traitors stated intent of 'ensuring the military was provided with the resources necessary to defend Earth', this destruction seems counterproductive except perhaps as a rather nasty object lesson." _

_"Fighting ceased in El Toro abruptly at 5.15pm this afternoon and it is reported that both parties in the ongoing fighting responded to formerly retired General Hammonds call to arms. If so, it would have been at his command that fighting within the base came to an end. _

_What we do know for definite is that Federal Agents are crawling over the base and that, for the moment, the base personnel have been disarmed. For now, the National Guard and the Feds are the only armed personnel within the base's perimeter." _

_"A massive explosion has occurred within the confines of Cape Canaveral … we don't have specifics as yet, but we do know the blast was powerful enough to felt right here, more then five miles outside the base perimeter…" _

_"Observers outside the Exeter Exclusion Zone are reporting that none of the Asgard radiation clearance ships have been sighted for almost two days now. The vessels, which follow a very tightly determined path, are usually visible even without aids several times a day but even with powerful telescopes, there appears to be no sign of the mighty vessels. _

_It is hoped that they have simply retreated because of the chaos but there is nothing to hold them hear except the goodwill of the Asgard. If recent events have strained relationships enough, these essential vessels may not come back, leaving with a massive cleanup that we are ill-equipped to handle." _

_"The Sol PDF squadron has now been effectively disbanded with no remaining operational craft. The squadron, one of the first to use _Blastboat _ gunboats was heavily involved in the recent fighting on both sides of the line and was understrength even before the fighting started. _

_Now, two of its craft have been destroyed and the remaining two have been abandoned in space by their crew. A full engineering assessment has yet to be carried out but we know from comments made by the Loyalist crew of the _Chimera _ that they do not expect their craft at least to be repairable. This may be a fatal blow to Earths already stretched defences as rumours persist that two of the _Ha'tak _ warships recently captured by the 1st Battlegroup may have also gone over." _

_"No contact with Fleet Admiral Thompson for almost a week now fueling rumours that yet another pivotal figure in Earths space military may have fallen in the recent chaos. The Admiral, who formerly commanded the Royal Space Service and now commands the Tau'ri Star Service was believed to have been shot down in a _Paladin _transport but no trace has been reported of the man at the scene of the crash." _

_"Ground fighting continues today primarily around the already battered Manston Aerospace Station and around Cape Canaveral in the States but curiously, the fight in space seems to be over. It is reported that as many as four hundred may have died up there but no figures are as yet available as to casualties on the surface but they will be high. _

_Area 51, whilst still extremely highly classified, is strongly believed to have almost two hundred researchers working their alone, not to mention all the support, constructions and security staff that such a base also requires and are now believed to have been uniformly executed by the traitors. _

_Not to mention as well the huge civilian casualties of this event, with several airlines confirmed as having been shot down in the initial days of the madness, including the 747 which fell onto a High School in New Hampshire . _

_Only time will tell what effect this will have on our safety and security and at what cost this 'victory' of liberty over military might." _

_"Colonel Billingsgate, formerly of the United States Marine Corps is reported to have committed suicide earlier as Federal Agents attempted to arrest him pending numerous charges of treason and sabotage. _

_The Colonel had access to the deployment of every fighter in the TSS thanks to his role in Logistics and it is already suspected that he was pivotal in moving disloyal personnel into position ready for the chaos but a doubt is beginning to appear in the minds of many. _

_For all the disruption this event has caused, for all the loss of lives, as soon as the Loyal forces began to rally it became very quickly clear how severally outnumbered the traitors were and how ill-equipped to actually take control of the TSS. _

_Only a single figure above the rank of Colonel has been implicated and that is Flottillenadmiral Hirsh, already under suspicion and likely to be sidelined due to xenophobia before the outbreak occurred. _

_It seems incredible that anyone could think it only took combat troops and frontline units to assume command over our entire lives, over our military, over our governments. _

_Truth be told, it's too incredible. _

_There is almost certainly a darker agenda here and I for one fear it is not of human origin." _

_"…receiving reports that the _Invincible, _a destroyer now believed to be acting outside lawful control has left the system and we are receiving scattered reports that the vessel may have left under _Ha'tak _escort. It is not yet known whether these are warships seized by the TSS or vessels still under Goa'uld command, but if it is the latter, it places a very different, interesting and dangerous interpretation on recent events." _


	25. Chapter 25

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-Five**

"How are we going to reinforce Earth defences?" Hammond asked quietly as Commodore Williams slipped into the room.

"With great difficulty," came the dry immediate reply, "Alpha Centauri has already been stripped down to fighters and patrol craft and not a lot of those. Lots of training squadrons but only one operational fighter squadron and one patrol craft squadron. Frankly, the Colonials are the backbone of the defence of the system at the moment, which they're going to love and I don't see that changing anytime soon. It may be worth transferring one of the ships the 1st captured to them to reinforce and reduce our own crewing issues. As far as the 'overseas' deployments are concerned I think we can forget it. Three ships helping against the Aschen, four against Anubis and four at Edonia… those are already minimum strength deployments but ones we're treaty bound to support."

"That doesn't help us a lot here and now,"

"No it doesn't, but right now crew are more the issue then ships. The 1st brought back six ships with them, four of which appear to be loyal and two we're not sure about. Getting them recrewed with trustworthy staff would have a major effect on offsetting our losses… but trustworthy crews are where we're going to have problems right now."

The General frowned then sighed, "Innocent until proven guilty Sarah. Unless there are specific concerns we have to assume everyone is innocent for the moment for the sake of morale if nothing else. Those ships need to be operational as soon as possible, get them crewed!"

"Well, the sheer number of _Shunters _ that have been stood down will help there at least."

_"Shunters?_" came the sharp query.

" _Thundersdawn _ had fifty of the damned things, along with her fighter, _Airhead _ and _Paladin _ squadrons. Far far more small craft then the station was ever designed to deal with, treble in fact but the _Shunters _could get away with stacking themselves onto the external airlocks and that's what they did but with _Thundersdawn _ now out… well, the _Shunters _ are the only craft which aren't atmospheric capable so they have to stay in space… some are still at _Thundersdawn _ supporting the stabilisation of the structure, some have based themselves aboard the _Admiral Peters _ and the _Coalmine _ and _Minehead _ stations have picked up a small number of the birds as well but there are now 30 of the craft abandoned in Mars orbit simply because we have no where to base them at the moment including the squadron that was doing most of the construction work for _Gaia… _"

Hammond visibly winced at that and Sarah had to sigh her agreement, "not to mention the _Shunter _training squadron. Frankly, as soon as things have calmed down I'm going to have to ask for logistical support to get them rebased on _Ravenbright. _Right now I'm organising minimal training out of the mining stations but they simply aren't setup to support that and as this is going to cause _Gaia _ to slip behind… well, the sooner we get training shipped out to _Ravenbright _ the sooner what little spare space there is as _Coalmine _ and _Minehead _ can be used for operational purposes."

"Commodore!" A phone was handed to her and she spoke for a few minutes before grimacing and closing the call.

"Right…" Sarah shook her head as she dropped the phone down into its cradle, glancing across the paper-strewn desk at the aging General, "that was a Group Captain Myers on the phone, apparently he flew out from RAF Digby to assume command at Manson. He's declaring the base unsafe and closed… says it's going to be two days at least before he can get a reasonably complete damage assessment out to us."

"Do we have any fighters left on the ground there?"

"Theoretically yes, a _Lancer _ and a _Striker _squadron. God only knows if they're actually there right now… My sister should have a reasonably complete idea of where every unit is so I'll buzz her about that shortly… but with Manston out we've lost fighter coverage over Europe ."

Hammond sighed, rubbing his forehead wearily, "alternates?"

"St Athans would be the primary; they're battered but seem to have largely escaped this most recent incident. We may be able to divert two squadrons there but Manston also has a _Paladin _ and an _Airhead _ squadron to consider. After that, we're talking bases equipped for Air Breathers only which will impact maintenance."

"What strength on the Squadrons?"

She sighed, "the _Lancers… _ well I caught a news report an hour or so ago which stated that a number of their craft were burning and this is a squadron which as far as I am aware was already understrength. I have no idea on the _Strikers. _"

With a grimace, Hammond reached for his coffee, "Signal that Myers to get whatever fighters he can out to St Athans and get a report as soon as possible to us and Joan on what's remaining at the station. The French slipyard, does that have a runway attached?"

Tapping for a few moments at the laptop on the desk, she smiled and then nodded, "Yes, you're thinking we should move the support squadrons there?"

"It's already a secured TSS facility," Hammond noted "and would have some repair capability. But the _Paladins _ should take support staff and basic equipment with them as they leave."

Nodding she sent a sharp look at one of the staffers at the back of the room and with a nod, the man rose and began to leave the room. As he did, Sarah grabbed his arm, a thoughtful expression on her face, "If they still have the room, it may be worth moving some of the squadrons displaced from _Thundersdawn _there as well."

"RAAF Darwin ?"

Shrugging, she tapped at her console, "small scale ground fight, destruction of a munitions dump… they're cleaning up debris from that plus replacing a lot of windows. Three fighters took minor damage; last report says they expect those to be operational again tomorrow, for all practical purposes the base is online."

"Area 51?"

Sarah grimaced, "thoroughly VSF'ed for the moment. Small numbers of personnel who appear to have escaped the purge have turned up… but we've also caught a few of the traitors trying to pretend to be survivors as well so for the moment we cant trust any of them. Physically the base is relatively undamaged, its underground all concrete construction reduced fuel sources for the fires that were set. Main damage is actually smoke which can be dealt with… but where the fire took hold, it took hold. Some sections of the base may have to be rebuilt… don't have an exact read-out yet, this is just the initial impressions of the engineers who have gone in. Frankly, the recovery of bodies has only just begun; I wouldn't expect anything other then quick off the cuff reports for at least a week, possibly a fortnight."

"I see," the General leaned back in his chair for a moment, gazing away from Sarah before quietly commenting, "It's the loss of trained personnel that is going to cause us problems."

"More then anything yes," she frowned, "and it will be up to my department to do what we can about that but it's not going to be easy and it is going to take time."

"I know," he shook his head, " Cape Canaveral ?"

"Fighting still ongoing within the perimeter… and unless there's been any new reports in the last fifteen minutes or so…" she glanced up catching the eye of a tech on the perimeter of the room who shook his head silently, "great, then beyond 'contested' we have nothing in the way of status. We're not even sure which of the two groups fighting within the base is actually on our side as both are claiming loyalty and both have advised when the order to stand down came they did and the other group didn't and that they took losses accordingly."

Pursing his lips, Hammond shook his head disgruntled, "I see. Status on El Toro now?"

"Battered but operational… lost some support facilities, mainly 32 Squadrons Headquarters which got hit with a series of thousand pounders. Main loss is in personnel and birds and that'll take time to fix. They've got fourteen _F-302 _ Starfighters on the ground that no longer have any crews."

"Consider that a priority, we need those birds back in the air," came the sharp reply.

"Agreed, but it isn't going to be easy. Right now we probably have some _Lancer _ pilots spare who can convert but that will take time, time I'm not convinced we have. With dropping numbers of _Lancers _ could probably close down 767 squadron for the moment, free up enough birds to bring 633 at El Toro and 194 at Manston up to strength which will help the security situation but if we lose pilots, that will make replacing them quite difficult not to mention reforming the squadron for the Mark 3 when it starts to roll off the production lines."

"Training will have to be done in squadron as necessary then, if those were still production fighters…" Hammond shrugged.

"I know, but we're still talking 3 to 4 days to get the training birds reconfigured then shipped back here under normal circumstances… given the current chaos in the supply lines, call it a week minimum."

"What about the _Darts? _"

"There's an operational squadron at Peterson and there was one forming at the Cape , no idea what their status is now but whilst we can divert them temporarily to defence duties that will have a major impact on training. I have already placed a stop on transfers out for the instructors… if our pilots get poached out to operational units that may give us an immediate boast but in the medium to long term we'll regret it."

"I can see your point Sarah, but surely one or two…"

"Those _Dart _ squadrons you're talking about are relatively recent formations. Most of the staff are still being chivvied along by the one or two who really know what they are doing and those are the pilots that would be taken. No, I would have to insist on the training squadrons, such as they are, being left alone."

"Very well," with a grimace, the General continued, "but this doesn't move us forward. We need more ships."

"The prizes the 1st Battlegroup brought back will help with that but the issue still remains, what the _fuck _ just happened? I don't think about… what, one eighth of our forces decided to turn traitor just for the hell of it!"

"Agreed," Hammond shook his head wearily, a deep pained frown marring his face, "but it is still under investigation… but given the suspicious actions of the _Invincible _…"

He paused at a snort from Commodore Williams and nodded, acknowledging the point, "…the especially suspicious actions of the _Invincible _ and the manner in which they left does suggest an external influence."

"Which frankly scares me," Sarah sighed, "our internal security was supposed to have been greatly improved against infiltration and the like since the Cylons and their human-forms appeared on the scene but for an event like this to still be possible… what other kinds of trouble do we have hiding in our ranks at the moment?"

"I don't know," came the tired response, "but we had best find out."


	26. Chapter 26

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-Six**

They walked slowly, cautiously towards the building, pistols already drawn, safeties off, expressions grim and their whole manner screaming their expectation of having to use their weapons shortly. A corner was reached, a quick glance around then with a gesture, the first stepped out of the shadow of the wall.

"NCIS, freeze!"

The only response was a sudden volley of staff weapon fire that had the agents ducking for cover and Gibbs caught the eye of the Goa'uld as he slammed his shield up then gazed upon the agent contemplatively.

A single motion and the Jaffa were falling back, the Goa'uld in the lead. They stepped out of the warehouse; still volleying fire at the agents then a Jaffa fell to the ground, his armour sparking with bullet strikes.

Another Jaffa started to turn, then fell down, a third…

And the Goa'uld snarled, kicking the staff of a fallen Jaffa into his hands with economic grace before adding his own fire to those of his warriors.

The gunfire from the side slackened and contemptuously, a few staff shots were sent in the direction of the agents, not trying to kill them, just to keep them ducking as the aliens continued to fallback.

They waited a moment then at a gesture form Gibbs, swiftly strode to the warehouse doors, mere moments later a Marine joined them.

"Slipped into the next warehouse sir, but its sealed off they aren't getting away from here."

At his words the front of the building exploded into flame and the dark, lurking shape of a _Tel'tac _ appeared, slipping slowly from the building.

Gibbs turned to face the Marine but he was already talking into his radio and moments later, the distinctive sound of rotors could be heard then the vessel rocked and they watched with baited breathe as the contrails disappeared, hoping that the missile strike had done some good.

It hadn't, and the craft accelerated away.

"Son of a bitch got away," Gibbs snarled his expression dark.

McGee grimaced, his eyes following the alien craft as it rocketed into the sky, "I'm calling it in, the TSS may be able to intercept it before it jumps out."

"You think?"

"No Dinozzo," came the swift reply, "I don't think so, but if we don't call it in then there isn't any chance."

"What are you standing around yakking for McGee?" Gibbs barked, his eyes turning away from the retreating Tel'tac and towards the agent, "call it in!"

"On it boss,"

"Well, at least we know now who to blame," Dinozzo frowned.

"Yeah," Gibbs slammed his hands into the bonnet of his car, "and the son of a bitch is getting away!"

* * *

"What in the Lords name just happened?"

"I don't know," Adama replied, his expression dark as he gazed upon the notes on his desk. Then he sighed, and glanced up at Roslin "but the word from Lord Holmes is that this was no accident, an agent provocateur is strongly suspected."

"Well," she noted, "if they wanted to disrupt the Tau'ri they certainly managed that. Us as well. How do we respond?"

"More your arena then mine," he sent a tight smile at the woman who at various times had been hated foe, unwanted pain in the arse and close friend, "but I don't see we have much choice. We simply don't the population, infrastructure and military strength to stand on our own right now. If we tried, the Goa'uld could take us out with relative ease. They would get their hands burned doing so but they could do it… and we simply don't have the capability to run again."

"We have to support the Tau'ri and assume they will recover form this?"

"That," Adama stated, leaning slowly backwards in his seat, "is my impression."

"I see," Roslin contemplated this for a moment before grimacing, "our own defensive situation is…?"

"Right now there are no Tau'ri warships in the system bigger then a gunboat, which means even though the Tau'ri are technically in command of system defence, the actual onus for any fighting if it happens lies with us. I've recalled _Watcher _ from the battlegroup, didn't want any of ours in that mess and that leaves us _Galactica, Ravenbright, _three destroyers, four understrength fighter squadrons and nine gunboats to protect the system."

"You don't think that's enough."

The Admiral nodded his acceptance of the statement, "No, I don't. The attacks from the Goa'uld are slowly escalating; _Indomitable _has been out of contact for months so we don't even know if there is peace with the Unforgiven… and the Secessionists…"

"What I would like is the immediate construction of a shipyard and serious production of warships for our use commencing."

"Not an option," Roslin noted with a soft sigh at his pause, "it would be nice though wouldn't it?"

Chuckling softly, Adama shook his head, "a man can dream… but barring that, the Battlegroup brought back six hulls, four _Ha'taks _ and two _Ha'tens. _O'Neill already said before his accident that he was going to push for a _ Ha'tak _ to be sent to Enerina and was considering suggesting one be offered to the Orban as a potential Flagship for their budding Navy…."

"I see," frowning, she considered this for a moment, "I'm not sure that is wise."

"We need the ships and I'm going to push for two hulls to be transferred to us, with _Watcher _and the small number of troops we had on the mission I think that gives us a solid basis for a case…" shrugging, he rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly, "but as for giving ships to Enerina and the Orban… maybe we need the ships more, maybe we need the allies. I don't know. What I do know is the Orban Navy for all practical purposes is non-existent and Enerina has three different star systems to police with an equal number of ships, two of which are obsolete."

"So you don't think we should contest it if the Tau'ri do chose to transfer two of the ships out."

"If it looks like we'll get two of the hulls to reinforce our own Navy," he smiled darkly, "No, otherwise…"

"Okay," Roslin noted after considering for that for a moment, "I'll back your play on that one. Can we crew the ships though?"

"Yes," Came the swift reply, "but we should keep them in-system for a while; we'll have to modify them on the fly to make the ships more suitable for our use. I don't think we can afford to arrange a full refit as yet."

"That," came the dry reply, "is certainly not in the budget. Alterations?"

"Stripping out the gold, adapting the living quarters, providing some recreational areas, adapting the computer systems to work with human technologies, increasing security…" Adama shook his head, "the Tau'ri are well versed with the basics and I know that much can be done without taking the vessels offline for refit. Frankly, I would love to add a CIWS array at the least but that would take a refit."

Roslin shook her head negatively, "I agree with pushing to get some of the new hulls transferred to us, particularly as we now seem to be responsible for the defence of this system but a refit isn't going to happen until we get some movement on the trade deficit."

"I know," Adama sighed, "any word on O'Neill's condition?"

"The heart attack was only mild and he is going to live," Roslin smiled darkly, her eyes catching the Admirals, "apparently it was triggered by the news of the revolt. In any case… a heart attack is a heart attack. The doctors will force him to lighten his work load whether he likes it or not."

"I," he replied after a few moments, "would rather not be tied to _Ravenbright _indefinitely and that is what will happen if the General is forced to relinquish responsibility for the defence of this system."

"Somebody else may be brought in to replace him,"

"As Commander of the Tau'ri military in-system yes, as Commander of System Defence…" shaking his head, he glanced down at his desk for a moment, "I don't think so."

"Would that be such a terrible thing?"

"Frankly…. Yes."

At her surprised, querying eyebrow he continued softly, "I was of retirement age… hell, I was due to retire when the end came. Almost a decade has now passed since then and I'm still wearing this uniform… war is a young mans game and frankly, I'm old. Hell, O'Neill's old, Hammonds old and he came back out of retirement purely out of duty. That's the only reason I'm still here, the only reason most of us old timers are still here… duty and the nagging feeling that we've been in the military so long that perhaps… perhaps we'll not be able to adapt to civilian life, perhaps us not being there will be the difference between the job being done and not.

This duty has cost me a life and it is getting time to seriously consider putting it aside and trust in the next generation to take over and do a good job as I have tried to prepare them to do."

Adama glanced at Roslin, she had an eyebrow raised in surprise but there was acceptance in their too, "it's time for me to take what little time I have and make a life for myself out of it."

"Who do you plan on succeeding you?" came the quiet, regretful but almost warm response.

"Lee can take _Galactica _…" Adama sighed "but Gaeta is going to hate me… I've already spoke to most of the Second Fleet commanders and most are either not suitable or plain don't want the responsibility of Senior Officer, Colonial Fleet."

"He'll need stars," Roslin pointed out mildly then nodded at the direst look from the Admiral, "okay, just give me some warning before you send your notice in."

The thank you he sent back was wordless, but it was heard all the same.


	27. Chapter 27

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-Seven**

_"Unsettled peace today as the guns fall silent once more, only Cape Canaveral, the main centre for construction of starfighters, defensive satellites and support craft, remains contested with fighting between loyalist and traitor units continuing building to building, street to street within the boundaries of the massive complex. _

_This is an emergency that should never have happened and the ripples and shockwaves continue to be felt. The Tau'ri Star Service, once considered by many in the 'Western' world at least to be the heroic protectors of our freedoms and liberties now has to deal with massive damage, to its bases, its ships and its personnel and has to do so with a shattered reputation that will no doubt have a major impact on its funding. _

_Yet, for all the chaos this has caused, all the deaths, all the madness, the TSS is still needed, still very much necessary and we must continue to support them as they start the painful process of rebuilding and of clearing out their house otherwise all may be lost." _

_"New information leaking form the shattered Manston Base of the TSS confirms that the bases new Ion Cannon, not yet completed before the recent madness was completely destroyed during the fighting. _

_This, the first in a long line of surface to orbit weapons planned by the TSS, was due to become operational within the next three months and would be only the second such weapon to be completed, the first being the prototype on Alpha Prime. _

_This is just the latest in a long series of calamities to hit our beleaguered defence forces." _

_"A class action suit against the TSS by a group from within the neighbouring villages, claiming that they had needlessly been placed in danger by choosing Manston as a TSS base has been thrown out of court today. Apparently, the judge didn't believe the case was 'In the Nations best interests'; this ignores of course the death, destruction and long term mental injuries the TSS have caused the nearby residents by placing their facilities in the area, thus encouraging the area to come under attack. _

_One can only hope that this senseless decision will fall under appeal and that the TSS will be forced to leave the area." _

_"I mean, I saw him as clearly as I see you now. It was my son, only… it wasn't. The face was right, the body, even the scar on his right cheek from a cycling accident he had when he was still in the Comprehensive. _

_But… but the way he walked, the way… he moved, the too stiff way his head moved almost like it was swivelling, far too mechanical… and his eyes. His eyes… they were cold, too cold, there didn't seem to be any humanity in them at all. _

_It's sounds like I'm trying to say he was being controlled, puppetted in a computer like fashion and I know that's how they've been described by others but that doesn't quite ring true. _

_There was something in his eyes, it wasn't human but it wasn't a computer either. It was life… but a stunted life, almost a perversion of life. _

_It sounds mad I know, but in that moment I saw that he saw me and then I got to see my sons face whoever… whatever was controlling or pretending to be him raised his gun and shot me. _

_That's an image I don't think I will ever forget, ever be able to remove from my mind even if my son is returned to me, the face of my son on the thing that shot me." _

_"Despite earlier claims, it is now reported that the prototype _F-302b _survived the recent attacks on Area 51 and will shortly restart flight tests albeit at a different and as yet undisclosed location. _

_It is hoped that the improved design will enter production shortly and help regain the superiority previously held by Earths fighters." _

_"It has emerged today that the Russians are considering recommissioning and rebuilding of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan into a modern facility to support the TSS and Earths defences, particular in the area of fighter and satellite construction and launching. _

_The facility, which saw the launch of Sputnik 1 and both the first man and woman in space has been largely abandoned since disclosure and the immediate obsolescence the new alien derived technologies placed upon most of the facilities. _

_A replacement facility that was being constructed near Vladivostok is now notorious as the site of the most explosive reactor accident in history when safeties failed on a _Prometheus _ class warship that was under construction. The resulting explosion destroyed the facilities and large parts of the nearby city. _

_The Russian Federation has been without any operational starbases since, a fact which has been a source of contention between them and the other founder nations. _

_It is known that Russia , China and Italy have been pushing particularly hard recently for more facilities to be moved outside the US as that one nation now controls almost 90% of starfighter and satellite construction… _

_Or it would, if it wasn't for the ongoing fighting at Cape Canaveral , a factor which has brought the vulnerability of the 'one big facility' method of construction very much into public thinking." _

_"We have dramatic footage here of the crash of the _Lancer 3 _prototype on Alpha Prime. This, the latest in long running series of accidents involving the aging and failing _Lancer _ design places great strain on British led hopes to revitalise the design. _

_To them I say simply this, you've flogged the dead horse enough and you have had major successes with four support craft designs, with the _Dauntless _destroyers, the _Britannica _ battle cruisers and with your spacestations and satellites, more successes then any other one nation. Your pride is safe, it's time to stop wasting money on your one major failure and put it to more useful pursuits." _

_"Fighting has ended at the Cape today after yesterdays dramatic storming of the base by special forces troops including Navy Seals and Marine Force Recon creating perhaps the first YouTube battle as hackers managed to obtain a live video stream from several sources including surviving security cameras form the base and more worryingly, from a orbiting _Reaper III _ UAV, posting the footage live to several websites. _

_This footage has already dropped one unnamed Seal into trouble as he was broadcast kicking a male prisoner in a very… personal location. That particular clip has rapidly risen into the top ten of most watched YouTube videos of the year." _

_"Flottillenadmiral Hirsh, long held to be one of the ring-leaders of the recent coup attempt may have been exonerated today, if only posthumously having been shot in the head attempting to evade capture by loyalist soldiers. It has now been reported then when the wound was inspected prior to removing the body to the morgue, a piece of what appeared to be Goa'uld technology was noted within his skull, possibly a mind-control device. _

_We'll bring you more as we have it." _

_"A stench fills the air around Manston today, a pungent stench that I have become all too familiar with during my years as a reporter. This is the smell of burning buildings, burning vehicles, of guns and explosions, underlain with the wretched and unmistakable scent of burning flesh. _

_No one knows as yet exactly how many people died at this base or in the villages and towns surrounding no in any of the other locations hit by the recent fighting and we may never know any exact total. Some bodies are known to have been burnt beyond any recognition, others may have been utterly obliterated by explosions… and a few may lay forgotten and undetected for months. _

_Only a week before this latest madness, a body was discovered in the bottom of a nearby ditch bearing the unmistakable marks of a gunshot wound to the head, a victim of one of the attacks on the base or an unrelated murder? Perhaps we'll never know… _

_But what we do know is this, something has to be done. _

_Even with the mass housing shortage caused by the latest Great Fire of London and the mass abandonment of large sections of the English countryside in the south-west, the property values in the area have plummeted and no-one seems to want to move in. Given that rebuilding had barely begun from the last attack when this latest incident occurred and that practically ever household in the area has suffered at least one fatality, its not hard to blame people for wanting to stay away or even, for the base to be moved. _

_But now is not the time for Nimby, for the 'Not in my backyard' syndrome which plagues attempts to rebuild industry and other developments in the UK . This base has to be somewhere and it is here, the cost to relocate it… frankly ludicrous. _

_An accommodation has to be reached, and one that will leave the local population feeling something they haven't felt in years, safe. _

_"A Marine lies in hospital today with a shattered vertebrae, the victim in the latest in along string of flare-ups between base personnel at the re-opened _El-Toro _airbase, now part of the TSS and the local civilian population, many of whom blame the base and its personnel for the damages and attacks they have suffered as a result of the base being there. _

_Already we have three candidates pushing for election using the forcible closure of El-Toro as there main ticket. But where you have dissent, you almost always have support as well and a private citizens group has already formed and is patrolling the main areas off-duty military personnel gather and ensuring any attacks on the personnel are recorded on camera, a fact which has already led to twelve convictions. _

_Police remain watchful but with almost one in five of the local officers killed or disabled in the last Goa'uld attack and few new recruits since then, are said to be happy for almost any assistance." _


	28. Chapter 28

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Twenty-Eight**

"…caught up with _Invincible _ at Procyon."

The half heard fragment of a conversation was enough to make Sarah stop abruptly in her tracks and turn, her bodyguard caught flat-footed as they tried to follow. Barely pausing to knock, she strode into the flight room, her abrupt entrance causing conversation to still for a moment before, at her sharp nod, continuing once more.

"What kind of shape did she appear to be in?"

The pilot she noted hadn't yet had a chance to get out of his flying gear, he appeared weary, sweat was slowly trickling down his brow and the collar of his suit appeared almost soaked with it. There was a bleakness to his eyes and a slight slump to his shoulders that told her more then anything else that this pilots reports wasn't a happy one. He had a mug in his hands from which steam still rose even as he held onto it almost as a lifeline.

"I didn't get too good a look, there were just too many bandits about… The bastard actually had a CAP up and not many Goa'uld bother with that… but she was damaged. There was… there was just a hole where the port missile tubes should have been, the armour around it was bent outwards so it had to have been an internal explosion. The lights were all out around the flightbay and there appeared to be a _Paladin _caught in the airlock, like someone had forced it closed as the craft tried to leave, I only caught a quick glance but it appeared the doors had managed to push about half a meter into the craft before they stopped and the bridge… well, that was dark too."

"What about the main guns?"

"Perfectly intact as far as I could see; same for the main engines… I… can't remember about the shields except that they weren't powered sorry."

"Did you get any indication that the Goa'uld had boarded her?"

"Beyond the seven _Ha'taks, _a bakers dozen of _Tel-tacs, _and enough fighters swarming about her to give anyone a seriously bad day?"

The laugh that followed was dark and there wasn't much humour in it, "no, I don't _know _ if she had been boarded or not… but I really doubt she was still under friendly control."

"What happened then?"

"Legged it… two _Lancer _IS versus that little lot? You bet I fucking legged it… and as soon as I got in system broadcast the co-ords straight to _Atlantis. _ Doubt they'll catch her though. A Goa'uld with enough brains to maintain a cap and capture one of ours isn't going to hang around once they know their location is blown. Now without having a lot more punch then that lot did."

There was one thing he wasn't mentioning though, and she doubted it had occurred to him really and shrugging, she inserted her won question "did you notice anything odd about the navigation lights?"

"Well, most of them were out but other then that… I didn't see anything odd no."

Nodding, she glanced at the interrogator, "I need to know whether the navigation lights on the _Invincible _were operating to regulations and if not, exactly what pattern they were flashing too. Check the fighter's cameras… I assume you had your cameras running?"

"Of course Commodore,"

She sent the pilot a sharp look at the uncertain response but there was curiosity in his eyes more then anything else and she nodded acceptance of his statement and turned her attention to the interrogator once more, "I need that with all due dispatch, understood?"

That said, she strode out of the room, a prayer on her lips that the lights had been flashing _exactly _ the opposite of regulation.

* * *

"The Orbanians heard about O'Neill's proposal to hand a _Ha'tak _over…"

"Balls," Sarah noted, grimacing as she leaned backwards in her seat, "how the fuck did they hear about that?"

"I'm not sure…" Carter shrugged, stepping into the office, closing the heavy faux-wood door behind her. With a tired smile, she nodded at the Head of Training, "but they have always played fair with us and without them, we may not have Naquadah generator technology at the moment. It certainly wouldn't be as advanced if we did."

Sarah narrowed her eyes, considering, "you're for it."

"They're offering a full alliance,"

She quickly shot the American a direct look and at the confirming nod, let out a startled whoosh of air, "wow... no wonder you're for it. If we can gain access to their scientific databases…"

"They have already stated they wouldn't grant us access to their nanotechnology but almost anything else is up for grabs. More importantly, they do have some small scale construction capabilities of their own. We train a few Urrone in fighter combat, get them some real world experience and provide a fighter design and they could quite quickly build up their own defences."

"We do have six gunboats under construction for them at the moment,"

Carter nodded acknowledgement, "and there are Urrone working with the construction crews for those. We already trust them with a lot of our technologies; I don't see why we shouldn't take it a step further."

"Perhaps," Williams shook her head, a thoughtful frown on her face as she gazed at the scientist, "but I was under the impression we were already allied with them…"

"Ah well," she hid a quick grin, something Sarah didn't miss, "they don't just want to be allied."

The response was a questioning eyebrow and Carter let a full unmistakable smile cross her face, "they want _in. _"

"In? What do you mean they want…." Her eyebrows widened and Sarah shot forward in her seat, sending Carter a disbelieving look, "you're taking the piss aren't you?"

"In exchange for technical and logistical assistance in the formation of a planetary defence militia for local defence, the Orbanians want membership of the Tau'ri Star Service Alliance," quirking her lips upwards at Sarah continued shocked silence, she continued, "effectively making the TSS Navy and Army Federal level armed forces for them with their own military being a purely local militia."

"That's… wow," she leaned backwards in her seat once more, "if they're serious…"

"I think they are," Carter shot a direct look across the deck, "and I'm looking for support for them for the next Oversight meeting."

"Are you kidding?" came the dry reply, "send me what you're got so far but I think you know what way I'll be voting."

Nodding her thanks, Sam dropped a memory stick on the desk and strode swiftly from the room.

* * *

" _Ravenbright _ reports that the _Sir Ector _ will be launching within the fortnight, they're asking for confirmation of what to place in slip 2 next."

Easy question… not an easy answer and one which logistics had been bugging him about too.

The _Sir Ector _ was the first _Ha'tak _ refitted to a primarily freight role and her introduction should have a massive impact on their ability to shift supplies and parts between the Sol and Alpha Centauri system though exactly how big an impact, only time would tell.

A second _Ha'tak _was earmarked for the refit; a damaged 'basic' _Ha'tak _ already named the _Sir Bors _in anticipation of its future role. Logistics, the Governors Office on Alpha Prime and a dozen others besides were all clambering for the second refit to be done as soon as possible.

But within the last year alone, two _Sentinels, _two _Dauntless _, a _Prometheus _and a _Ha'tak _had been destroyed. Not to mention, the loss of _Invincible _, three squadrons of gunboats and a nasty percentage of the fighter force.

A warship… a warship would almost certainly be the better choice. Rebuild the fleet, rebuild some confidence and fighting spirit… okay, so say I authorise a warship, would it be a completion of a _Thundersdawn _project of something new, a _Washington _ perhaps?

This really was the sort of thing that should be decided by committee, not just one person but damn it, half the Purchasing Committee still hadn't been found again and they didn't really have a lot of time to be discussing it around a campfire!

Hell, it was long ago that he was still classed as missing… fucking _Paladin _ had to choose one of the most arse-end of no-where places to land and then so much time wasted trying to confirm he really was who he said he was!

Off the subject… ships.

There were still four major hulls at _Thundersdawn _, one is a _Merchant. _Scratch that for the moment, needed warships more. A new build _Prometheus _that could also be scratched, still hadn't been extracted from the remains of the dock it was in and last he had heard had been damaged. No through assessment as yet… but he wasn't going to hold his breathe.

That left _Constitution _which was a _Britannica _ and a _Sentinel _refit… or new build.

_Ravenbright _ was fully setup to support and construct _Dauntless _, _Prometheus _ and _Ha'tak _ classes but _Sentinels _ and _Britannica's, _not so much. Of course, no-body really had any experience building _Washington __'s _because there were none even started yet. There were 3 funded and getting a head start on construction and potential difficulties prior to _Gaia _coming online had its upsides but first ship of a new class?

Didn't need to be a genius to know construction was going to take longer then usual, but then, that would be the case regardless where and when construction was started. It would help that parts were already beginning to be gathered and assembled on Earth and the _Sir Ector _ would be a major boast in getting those parts where they needed to be…

But of course, tried and true versus new and untested was a major argument in itself.

Complete a _Britannica _ or a _Sentinel… _or new build a _Washington __… _

Decisions decisions.


	29. Chapter 29

**13: The Line**  
** by chaos_eternus**

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

"Boss,"

Gibbs glanced up questioningly as McGee strode into the temporary office, his voice sounding a little shaken and voiceless.

"I've got something a little interesting here,"

"Well?" he asked holding back his impatience as the younger agent began to fiddle with his computer.

"I found a map in the office of one of Ba'als tools, appears to be…"

The main plasma screen flickered into life and he glanced across then his eyebrows rose slightly, and he nodded, "an airport or airbase."

"Exactly,"

"Do we know which one?" They would have to have security raised there at the least…

"Yes, it's St Athan,"

A major TSS base? Gibbs carefully kept the expletives he learned as a Marine inside his head,

"Or it was."

"Was?" he asked sharply, perhaps a link to a past attack? Something else they could pin on the Goa'uld?

"The base was rebuilt after the NID attack and this map shows the base as it was before that."

He considered this for a moment, his eyes tracking across several very distinctive marks on the screen, "that looks like a plan of attack."

"It is," McGee replied grimacing, "in fact it's _the _ plan of attack. The new forensics guy confirms it… this map was created _before _the raid was launched…"

"And it matches the initial assault," that he didn't need to check, at least not straight away. This was starting to make a certain horrible sense… "Some of the rats escaped the clean-up."

"Ah,"

Oh he wasn't going to like this was he? Whenever McGee got that tone in his voice… "Go on."

"This file came from Major Carlos O'Byrne's office; he was part of the clean up team and several of the notations on the map match his handwriting."

"One of the attackers made it into the investigation team?"

"Ah, yes, it appears that way."

"Nice work McGee," that he had to admit, it was a good catch. Now they just had to find the bastard.

"Raises an interesting question though," Gibbs glanced up at musing tone of his fellow agent's voice.

"Oh?"

"Was the attack really an NID operation, a trust one or a Goa'uld one?"

Talk about your nasty thoughts… and one which could only had one answer "find out!"

* * *

"Do you think they bought it?" Thompson asked wearily.

"The public seems to have," Hammond sighed, "for the most part anyway. As to our enemies, only time will tell."

"Time," he winced as he replied, a note of disgust in his voice, "does not appear to be on our side. The attacks are escalating faster then our ability to defend against them."

"I don't see what else we can do," Hammond noted, "if the negotiations with the Orbanians are successful, then we will gain more resources and more importantly, access to some top notch researchers."

"But the largest ship they have is a frigate at best, most of their fleet is made up of corvettes and patrol ships and obsolete ones at that. Their defences will need to be upgraded… Yes, I will welcome them with open arms but their joining isn't going to solve all our problems and will more then likely exacerbate some."

"Perhaps, but I don't see what else we can do,"

Thompson shrugged, "once the Orbanians are in, we should put a major effort into getting their own shipyards up to date. Yes, they're not capable of building larger hulls but if we can get their militia up to scratch swiftly then perhaps we can get them working on building up our fleet of smaller ships as well. At least they have their logistics up to scratch."

"Even so, the kind of crash building program we know is necessary will stretch their capabilities, particularly their supplies of Naquadah."

"That," the Admiral noted swiftly, "has almost always been our problem as well. We use that damned mineral for too much, from our damned weapons systems to our power supplies. All the Goa'uld or Cylons would need to do to defeat us really is cut us off from our supplies of Naquadah and whilst that might slip past Anubis, I doubt it had escaped Maktenos's notice."

"Agreed," Hammond nodded shaking his head, "bit I don't see what else we can do. ZPE's are only good in-system and are not particularly suited for most military uses, fission plants are larger, produce less power and have hazards of their own… we don't have a lot of other options."

"Well," Thompson shook his head wryly, we need one but I doubt it's going to happen anytime soon."

"There is a suggestion that we should take and hold a Naquadah rich world for mining purposes,"

"With what?" came the cynical reply, "oh I know where they're coming form with that but we barely have the strength to hold what we have… adding more territory to garrison to that is just not an option at the moment."

"We may have to make it one soon,"

"I know General," came the regretful reply, " _Minehead… _ that little present of Apothis's has kept us going for a while. What is the latest report?"

"Five years at current rates of consumption then the rock will be depleted. At which point we will have no native sources of Naquadah left."

"Hardly native George,"

The General shrugged acknowledging the point, "I know but the point stands. We have several small scale workings off-world but nothing serious simply because they are undefendable from space as it stands. Soon, we are going to have to change that."

"Which means fixed and mobile defences, infrastructure…" Thompson rolled his eyes heavenward, spitting out the final work as if it were an epithet, _"cost…" _

"That will be something to go over once you get out of here again," Hammond noted.

Shooting a disgusted look around the hospital room, he replied, "Apparently I'm going to be in and out for at least five months now which is going to be awkward. Still, at least I have a damned good deputy…"

"Thank you," came the dry response, "but back to the original subject…she flew and apparently quite well. They're still testing but this initial impression is that we may have made it this time."

"Good," Thompson noted, grimacing as he noted his Doctor striding towards the glass door of the room, "but whatever else you do, don't let it slip that the _Lancer _is still with us."

"Agreed," Hammond nodded, rising from his seat as the door opened behind him, "and in the meantime, I'll have a look at that other issue I mentioned as well."

Nodding his thanks, Thompson sent a pained grimace towards the ceiling as the crabby old Doctor set his cane against the foot bed and started his work once more.

* * *

"Never an easy day, eh?"

"No Lord Holmes,"

"Oh just call me Ernest," he shrugged, turning away from the windows of his office and their view over the surrounding 'city' of five thousand, "if we're going to be working directly together we can dispense with the formalities."

"Of course Ernest," relaxing slightly, Tarva leaned backwards in her own seat, her hands resting on the tablet computer in her lap, "but you'll have to forgive me if slip back into formality a bit, I've always been a field engineer not an administrator."

She got a snort in response, "what do you call what you've been doing at the old Alpha Mine the last few years other then administrating the study and analysis of the same mine that damned near killed you!" **

"At least I could still get my hands dirty," came the dry response, "I rather suspect I'll get fewer opportunities for that now."

"True enough I suppose," Holmes sighed, then leaned forward, pressing his hands together as he gazed upon the scarred face of the miner, "but frankly, what I know about mining… well, I wouldn't need to take my shoes off to count it, put it that away.

With the slow build-up of the mines and the associated industries, refining and the like, mining is becoming more and more important and I need someone in my corner who actually knows what they're talking about!

I will of course be bugging you for assistance in geological matters as well, I understand there is significant overlap there but primarily I know we need to increase our production. The thing is, how and that's where you come in."

"Well, as a start, right now we're actually stockpile ore at 3 mines at the moment because the trains to take the materials to the refineries aren't running often enough."

Holmes let out a loud theatrical groan at that, "that's because the Americans have called a halt on new railway construction and acquisition."

Tarva blinked, "for God's sakes, why?"

"The great American overcompensation…" came the dryly humorous reply, "got to do it bigger, harder and better… or in this case, just bigger. Seem to think that the pristineness of Alpha Prime is a great opportunity to forget standard gauge and go straight to broad gauge for much bigger locomotives, bigger wagons…"

"I see,"

"No, you don't," Holmes grimaced, "but I've had my ear bent over this repeatedly by… certain circles. Oh they're right of course, Brunel proved _that _ but the damned bastards can't decide how 'broad' a broad gauge should be and therein lies the problem."

Tarva snorted, "Well, if they try and get that _into _ my mines we'll have a problem. I don't see any reason to switch those from Narrow gauge, too quick and simple to use in the mines… especially the secondary facilities around the Beta mine, too mountainous!"

"Maybe… but right now you're saying the bottleneck is the transport yes?"

"At most of the mines yes," she shrugged, "of course, the stockpile of bauxite where that refinery is being built is frankly starting to make the slate wastes tips at Blaenau Ffestiniog look positively dwarfen."

" _Sir Ector _ is already changing that," the Lord noted, "but her playbook is full so whilst the bigger parts are now coming in, they're not coming in as fast as they might."

"Frankly…" Tarva grimaced, "we're not having the effect we could. From my perspective, in order for the mining industries on Alpha Prime to be worth it we need to be able to produce a significant proportion of this systems metal needs. The requirement was 20%... with a goal of four years ago! We're closest with irons and steels from what I understand, maybe about 15% of the 'general' grades but no specialist or high quality right now, aluminium… well that's a big fat zero right there and don't get me started on copper…"

"And those are the only three we have active mines for," Holmes sighed.

"So far," came the shrugged reply, "but they are the big three. Titanium and Platinum are probably going to be the next two to go for but the issue will be infrastructure and personnel of course."

"There has been a suggestion that we should be going for building materials next,"

Tarva smiled, "that would be a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Limestone, gravel, sand… no real technical difficulty just bulk, the transport situation will need to be dealt with. It would also help with one of my other major issues at the moment."

He raised an eyebrow enquiringly, "Oh?"

"Workers accommodations," came the succinct reply, "they're up to standard certainly… what little of them there is and _that _ is the problem. One of the subsidiary mines around Beta mine, Beta-four has a third of its workforce living in tents. This is in damp mountainous terrain that sees significant rainfall. It's not healthy and frankly its just not on either.

Add to that the lack of passenger services and entertainment and right now we have a potential powder keg."

"The Charlie Mine riot," Holmes noted with a sigh.

"Exactly," Tarva shook her head, "I may not be the best at judging the situation across a population but right now I'm worried. Add to that the severe lack of a civilian police force, minimal medial facilities outside of _Ravenbright _ and an anaemic fire service… if the ground-side starts to get messy and it may well, I can only see one reaction happening and that's a military response."

"You're not the only one to be bringing such reports to me," Holmes admitted, "its one of the major arguments I've been hearing regarding changing construction priorities."

"Well," she nodded, "I'll get the reports and breakdowns for you. There are potential sources near existing settlement for limestone and gravel for certain. I would bet on sand too but will have to check to be certain… in the meantime I would make one suggestion if I may?"

"You may,"

"Tell those fuckers on the Transport and Services Committee to pull their bloody fingers out and get an answer to you within a month at most… with no long distance roads the railways are too central, they cant waste our time playing silly buggers there. Once that's fixed then we may be able to start fixing pricing down for new facilities and maybe getting some work done on them. I would also suggest that those mythical 'regular' passenger services they've been promising us stop being so mythical… they aren't British Rail or whatever the fuck they're supposed to be called nowadays." Tarva grimaced, "that alone would ease some of the personnel tensions a bit… may be buy us some time to deal with the underlying issues."

"Well," Holmes glanced at his watch, "I'll certainly look into that. In the meantime please get me a report together regarding construction materials sources and quickly. I'll have a _Paladin _ assigned to you for that but in the meantime, I have another appointment."

"Of course," shaking Lord Holmes hand, the engineer swiftly left the office.

** 7: Alpha Centauri


End file.
